The Department of Registrar of Companies has completed its transition towards the age of information technology and is finally operating for more than a pittance, according to Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen’s address to the parliament on July 11.

“We have now modernized the day-today activities of Department of the Registrar of Companies. For example, if a foreigner comes to Sri Lanka and wants to register their company, facilities have been provided to do this within two days by the adoption of computers,” said Bathiudeen while making his parliamentary statement on the Revision of Fees Regulations.

The fees structure, which was hopelessly out-of-date, enacted by an amendment in 1965, has been revised to reflect modern times with the approval of the General Treasury.

The Minister said the Rs.10 charged for Registration of Society, Rs.5 charged for Amendment of Articles of Society, Rs.1 charged for Issue of Certified copy of Society, the free of charge service for Filling of Annual Report of Society, and fifty cents charged for File search of Society are completely inadequate and do not justify the level of services expected from this important department.

Scaling registration charges are now enforced for different categories of companies with limited entities being charged Rs.15,000, Rs.10,000, Rs.500, Rs 5000 and Rs.500 for the above services respectively.

Bathiudeen stated that these revisions are minimal amounts and in par with current rates and more importantly, clearly justifies the level of services expected, and added the vast increase of income would be used to “focusing on the changes of the auditing standards, Sri Lanka Accounting standards and legal framework, and for the enhancement of the professional quality of the registered auditors and recovering of the government cost incurred.”