Graham

Chief executive officer of the Small Business Development Agency (SBDA), Andrea Graham, is urging small companies to register their operations to make it easier for the agency to lobby on their behalf.

The majority of the estimated 150,000 to 200,000 small and micro enterprises (SMEs), which account for some 90 per cent of the countries businesses, according to Graham, are believed to be informal operations.

Graham said her agency is unable to speak for those enterprises that are not legitimately registered as a business and as taxpayers.

"We are asking all members of the sector to formalise themselves, because if they do not do this, they do not exist, and if they do not exist, then we cannot champion their cause," said the SBDA chief executive.

"When they are faced with certain challenges - for example a creditor refusing to pay - and they report these matters to us, we are not able to lobby on their behalf because there are no records for them and so we cannot defend their cause well."

To be acknowledged as a business, the entity must be officially recorded, and be tax compliant.

Graham said tax compliant status was becoming increasingly important as Government was now refusing to do business with those operations that were not.

"You can't blame the Government for this because if there are no records for you, why should the Government listen when a case is presented for you," said Graham.

Additionally, she says, companies are asking small businesses to produce a Tax Compliant Certificate (TCC) when doing transactions with them, "and when they don't have it, they tell them flat out, 'we can't do business with you'," she said.

A special window at the island's tax centres for small businesses register for TRINE, statutory taxes and business registration would make the formalisation process easier, said the small business lobbyist.

business@gleanerjm.com.

TAKEN FROM THE FINANCIAL GLEANER, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2006