JAMAICAN technocrats vow to slash tax payments and provide faster business registration aimed at stemming the perennial decline in the Doing Business Report.

The island declined for the ninth consecutive year to 94 amongst 189 nations in the World Bank Doing Business Report 2014.

The Companies Office Jamaica (COJ) will speed up business registrations by integrating into a single form information from Ministry of Labour, Inland Revenue Department, Heart NTA, National Housing Trust (NHT) and Tax Administration.

“It will assist in reducing the time and cost involved in establishing a business in Jamaica,” said Judith Ramlogan, head of the COJ, at the launch of the MSME and Entrepreneurship policy at the Terra Nova Hotel, Kingston on Tuesday. “As a direct result of this Jamaica should increase its foreign direct investments and improve its ranking in the World Bank’s Doing Business survey.”

It will result in the business being registered along with the business owner registered for TRN, GCT, NIS, Heart and NHT. At the back-end the COJ will coordinate the exchange the information with various entities, added Ramlogan.

Timeline for implementation remains undisclosed: “There are several legislative amendments that have to be undertaken to enable the implementation of the form. It is however expected that the form will be implemented shortly.”

The COJ will also implement a collateral registry to facilitate collateral to businesses.

“It will broaden credit access to MSME, reduce cost of credit, and promote credit and risk diversification. The COJ will also update its website in order to allow foreigners and locals to register businesses online, starting next March.

Ansley Powell, acting tax tzar, indicated in his address that the body would reduce filings.

“We are now looking at merging the self-employed, head tax returns and the employers’ returns into one single return to see if we can beat or cut into that nemesis of time it takes, in the Doing Business Report,” stated Powell.

The island continues to score amongst the lowest in the world regarding tax payment, energy costs and transferring property, according to the report.

The island’s worrying sub-ranking included 132nd for getting electricity; 168th in terms of paying taxes (with 36 payments required per year); 118th for traders across borders; and 114th for registering property.

The country showed improvement on its own, but the world improved faster which resulted in the slump. For instance, the World Bank indicated that since 2005, Jamaica implemented the most reforms in the region with 13 reforms during this period, followed by the Dominican Republic with 12. However, the reform pace only slowed the island’s decline in a highly competitive world.

“We launch this policy today…as a driver and catalyst for social and economic development,” said industry minister Anthony Hylton in his address.