DEPARTMENT of Commerce Secretary Mark Rabauliman said the recent increase in government fees amid a global pandemic and a severe economic downturn is “fair and reasonable.”
Mark Rabauliman
Authored by Rep. Joseph Leepan T. Guerrero and signed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres on Jan. 7, 2020, Public Law 21-37 imposes higher or new fees on businesses.
In an interview, Rabauliman said the fee hike will provide his department with the funding it needs to create a “comprehensive data system” for CNMI businesses and companies.
He said the system will help businesses file, search and order business records while allowing Commerce to “increase its efficiency,” and provide more access to the Office of the Registrar of Corporations and its staff.
Rabauliman said the fee hike will help Commerce provide the following services:
• Automatic paper-based process, which will allow businesses to file and request copies of records online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Access to the registrar’s business records, which will allow public and government agencies to perform search functions in a more efficient manner.
• Allow fee payments to be processed on the same business day and allow for an expedited new corporate registration within the same day as well.
• A preliminary research of corporation names already in the record can be made online through Commerce’s business search, which is a preliminary search only and is not intended to serve as a formal name availability search.
• Provide statistics about CNMI businesses to include links to data products, related programs and additional information.
• Provide links that have the capacity to provide electronic data elsewhere.
• Provide for continued vital training of staff for process improvement, and proper and efficient customer service.
• Purchase of a vehicle for the registrar’s use for regular visits to existing corporations to ensure that CNMI corporate law is being followed.
In her letter requesting the governor to veto the fee hike bill, Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Velma Palacios noted that the Department of Finance has modernized technology without raising fees.
She added, “Raising fees for the sake of raising fees, when online technology should make it more cost-effective and efficient to process applications, is demoralizing for our exhausted business owners and overwhelmed entrepreneurs.”
She said, “The best way to create more economic stability for the government is by encouraging entrepreneurship — not discouraging it by raising fees.”
