Councilor Wenceslao Gakit, chairman of the City Council committee on finance, said that those firms that failed to beat today's deadline would be penalized, including the payment of surcharges.
As of yesterday, less than 1,000 of the more than 4,000 business establishments in the city have not renewed their permits. But they are expected to renew their permits today to beat the deadline.
The Mandaue City government has become a model for streamlined processing of business permit applications that also uses the mailing system.
It has reduced the documentary requirements of applicants, pared down the processing steps to just seven signatures from the usual 13, and clipped the processing duration from five days to only 40 minutes.
A major feature of this innovation is the use of the postal system through which City Hall will just send through mail the approved business permit to a certain applicant.
An applicant who submits his application with complete documents could just leave it with a stamped envelope at the processor's window and wait for the mailed permit in a couple of days.
The city's innovative processing of business permits was made possible through the consultancy assistance from the Management Association of the Philippines. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan