Pakistan - Start a New Business

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Procedure

• Obtain the approval for the company name online through the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) E-service website. This will take 1 day. Associated costs are PKR 200.
• Pay the fees for name registration and company incorporation, using bank challans at the designated bank (MCB). This will take 1 day included in procedure 1 (name verification fees) and in procedure 3 (registration fees).
• Register the company with the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) through online E-services. This will take 2 days. The accompanying costs are- PKR 6000 as Registration Fee plus PKR 2400 Filing Fee (Form 1, Form 21 & form 29 & copy of Memorandum of Association).
• Obtain digital signatures from the National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) through the SECP e-services. This will take 1 day. The costs include: PKR 650 (Certificate charges) + PKR 126.75 (Federal excise duty at 19.5%) + PKR 500 (Validation charges).
• Then, apply for a national tax number (NTN) and register for income tax. This will take 2 days but no fee is charged.
• Register for sales tax by applying for a Sales Tax Number (STN) at the Tax Facilitation centre of the Regional Tax Office (RTO) of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in Karachi. This will take 1 day. No charge is payable.
• Register for Professional Tax with the Excise & Taxation Department of the District. This will take 7 days (simultaneous with the previous procedure) and no charges needed to be paid.
• Register with the Sind Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI). This will take 11 days (simultaneously with the previous procedure). No charges to be paid.
• Register with the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI). This will take 11 days ( can be done simultaneously with the previous procedure). No charges are to be paid.
• Register under the West Pakistan Shops and Establishment Ordinance 1969 with the Labour Department of the District. This will take 7 days (simultaneously with the previous procedure). The charges payable are PKR 10.

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Required Documents

• Application Forms
• Bank challan
• Declaration of compliance
• Identification of the location of the business
• Particulars of directors, secretary, chief accountant, auditors, and others
• One copy of the Memorandum and Articles of Associations with the signature of each member (in presence of a witness)
• NTN (National Tax Number)
• Sales Tax Registration Number
• Pakistani national identity card and /or passport copies of non-residents

Office Locations & Contacts

SESSI- Govt. of Sindh
Contact us
e-mail: [email protected]
Head Office
PABX: 99243813, 99243814, 99243748 & 99243751
FAX No: 021-99243355

Eligibility

Provide eligibility criteria's for going through this procedure.

Fees

• PKR 200 (E-services online name reservation)
• PKR 837 (certificate charges) + PKR 163 (sales tax at 19.5%) + PKR 500 (validation charges)
• PKR 8500 registration fee + PKR 2400 filing fees of Form 1, Form 21, Form 29, and Copy of the memorandum and articles of association
• PKR 10(Register under the West Pakistan Shops and Establishment Ordinance 1969 with the Labor Department of the District)

Validity

Once the payment is settled, the Deputy Chief Inspection lists the establishment in the Register of Establishments maintained in Form B and issues a registration certificate in Form C.
The registration certificate shall be prominently displayed by the employer at the establishment, and shall be renewed after every two years upon payment of fees.

Documents to Use

http://www.sessi.gov.pk/register.asp

Sample Documents

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Processing Time

Two months

Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications. 
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type="website">video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the "&" inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver, 
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M" Video ID is "Y0US7oR_t3M". 
	

Instructions

Types of Legal Forms for Doing Business
There are three main forms of business in Pakistan, defined as follows:

• Sole Proprietorship
  

An individual on his/her own account carries out the business or profession. No formal procedure or formality is required for setting up a sole proprietary.

• Partnership
  

A business relationship entered into by a formal agreement between two or more persons or corporations carrying on a business in common. Such partnerships are created under the Partnership Act of 1932 and if needed is registered with the Registrar of Firms.

• Company
  

A legal entity formed under the Companies Ordinance, 1984. It can have share capital or can be formed without share capital.

Required Information

• A certified copy of the charter, statute or Memorandum and Articles of the company, in English or Urdu, accompanied by prescribed Form 38
• Address of the registered or principal office of the company on Form 39
• A list of Directors, the Chief Executive and Secretaries (if any) of the company on Form 40
• Particulars of the principal officer of the company in Pakistan on Form 41
• Particulars of person (s) resident in Pakistan authorized to accept services on behalf of the foreign company on Form 42
• Address of the principal place of business in Pakistan of the foreign company on Form 43 (Section 451)

Need for the Document

In Pakistan, private limited companies are incorporated and regulated by the Companies Ordinance, 1984 while Securities and Exchange Commissioner of Pakistan (SECP) is a regulatory authority established for regulation of stock markets and the Companies ordinance, 1984.

One of the important functions of the Commission is the registration/incorporation of public and private limited companies.

Therefore, people who want to get their private limited companies registered are supposed to apply to the commission. The commission issues incorporation certificate when all requirements are met by promoter(s) as per law.

Pakistan follows the standard international 40-hour working week, from Monday to Friday, with Saturday and Sunday being weekend holidays. However, in many schools and enterprises, Friday is usually considered a half-day.

Information which might help

Many departments of Pakistan have been made fully up beat with latest technology and some registrations like company registration have been fully automated with a few bugs of course.
Many steps can be completed online; however, objections and/or questions of law raised by the departments are easily handled through competent lawyer/solicitor and/or Attorney.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

http://fpcci.org.pk/

http://www.commerce.gov.pk/

http://tcp.gov.pk

Others

In Pakistan doing business is easier in Faisalabad and Multan and more difficult in Quetta and Hyderabad.
Continued reforms have reduced start-up time and costs, but the number of procedures remain high.
Business start-up takes on average 21 days and costs 20.2% of income per capita.
Business start-up costs ranges from 13.2% of income per capita in cities with online registration to 26.2% of income per capita in Sialkot, where businesses continue to register in person.