The Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA) has said it will this year 2013 embark on mobile collection of annual returns in a bid to speed up the process and give access to people in far flung areas.
This follows PACRA’s extension of the amnesty for companies to pay their annual returns penalties from December 31, 2012 to January 31, 2013 to allow more businesses from rural areas to file their returns.
Speaking to ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today, PACRA Public Relations Officer Vaida Bunda says conducting mobile collection of returns will not only quicken the process but also make it cheaper as people will not have to move from distant places to have access to PACRA.
Ms Bunda urged companies to take advantage of the extension of the waiver as the agency will not extend the deadline again.
She added that companies that would not provide returns before or during the deadline will automatically be deregistered and deleted from the PACRA database.
The Public Relations Officer said PACRA was keen on reducing the number of idle companies in its database in readiness for digitalization to commence on 1st February 2013.
She revealed that the agency had initially intended to embark on digitising its records this month January 2013 but postponed the exercise due to the extension of the amnesty.
And Ms Bunda disclosed that with offices already in Ndola, Chipata, Chinsali, Mongu, Livingstone, and Lusaka PACRA would be opening two new offices in Solwezi, and Kasama this month to increase access in all provinces of the country.
She said having more offices across the country would decentralize the registering of companies and provide convenience for SMEs in far flung areas.
Last year PACRA granted amnesty to all defaulters irrespective of the number of years, which begun on October 1, 2012 and was expected to end on December 31 but extended the deadline after realizing that the big beneficiary of the amnesty were businesses from urban areas.
Over 10, 000 business names and companies have successfully filed their annual returns so far from the time the waiver was given.
ZANIS
Good move pacra.
I don’t understand why things are so difficult in Zambia. Why can’t PACRA automatically send renewal forms to companies and get the companies to fill out and return the forms by post? May be I am being naive here, but it all seems pretty straight forward. Any payments can be made at the bank or Post Office. Opening so many branches seems unnecessary and a waste of resources.
Uli shilu don’t you know that opening more branches will create employment
We’ve had the Post Office for as long as Zambia has existed and yet it is increasingly under-used. What’s more, post offices are everywhere. Now that people have mobile phones and internet access, they do not write many letters. The Post Office needs to diversify by offering more services. For instance, they can act as processing agents for government agencies such as Road Fund Tax, PACRA, Passports, etc. People should not need to travel to Lusaka to register a company when all they need to do is pick up a form from the Post Office, fill it out, hand it back with a fee and wait for a certificate of incorporation from PACRA.
@ Mukame, well explained mwana, this is backwardness at its best. Why under utilize the post offices??? It also shows that people are not serious with the law, just how do you allow urban based companies fail to submit annual returns???? imwe ba PACRA so ma allowances fye mulefwaya!!!! just get into partnership with post offices in remote areas to make life easy for everyone and tell your govnt to fully utilize internet services for easy communication, you ve got to evolve with time!!!!!!!
nice decsn pacra it has bn dfcult 4 us frm far places do register en do our annual returns.wel done.
THANK SO MUCH FOR MOVING THE PACRA OFFICES FROM NDOLA TO KITWE ZRA OFFICES. IT IS A GOOD MOVE YOU HAVE TAKEN. FOR SOME OF US YOU HAVE MADE OUR BUSINESS EASIER . THUMBS UP THANKYOU.
Can we book our time for doing business with PACRA in kitwe as people from outside Kitwe cannot wait endlessly to get to their turn. Also with increased business interactions pl provide more staff to attend to customers especially cash / registeration counters.
I want to know how i can file in annual returns on online or asisst with pacra’s email address.