The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is considering taking initiative for revamping the legal framework and making regulations easier for small and private companies. SECP executive director registration Nazir Shaheen said this while addressing the 5th Pakistan SME Conference in Gujranwala on Thursday. He said the idea to establish a one-stop shop, providing all facilities under one roof, including the registering of the company to formally setting up of business was being explored with the Ministry of Finance.
SECP is also thinking about the redesigning of legal framework in order to make it easier for small and private companies. Further, it will also start efforts to encourage non-corporate SMEs to adopt corporate legal status. He said SECP fully recognises the significance of a growing SME sector, a backbone for developing country. A large segment of SMEs is operating as informal and unstructured non-corporate entities and there is a dire need that they should get incorporated to become a part of the documented, structured and formal corporate sector.
Highlighting SECP’s past reforms, he said the concept of single-member companies was introduced in 2003, after observing that most of the SMEs in the country functioned as sole proprietorship. He informed that FBR has provided some tax incentives to small companies in 2005, upon SECP’s recommendation, including reducing their income tax rate to 20 per cent. Recently, registration fees for offline incorporation of a company with nominal capital up to Rs10 million has been reduced to encourage SMEs to change into corporate culture. He encouraged SMEs to benefit from the new SECP’s services, as these provide more convenient mode of registration and filing documents.
