One-Stop Business Portal Offers Greater Convenience

The Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) promises new levels of service and convenience for individuals who need to do various kinds of transactions regarding business licenses in Singapore. OBLS is part of the Singapore government's efforts to streamline, simplify and integrate the application of licences from various agencies while saving time and costs for enterprises. With the OBLS integrated form, users fill only one form to apply for multiple licences. Access to the system is via SingPass or CPF PAL PIN.

When Mr Shegar, General Manager of Touch World Enteprise Pte Ltd, started his Tatami shop business, he had to spend three days driving to various government agencies to apply for the Food Shop Licence, Company Incorporation, Fire Safety Licence and Permission for Change of Use.

When he found out about OBLS, he decided to apply for the Liquor Licence for his second business through the e-Service. "The experience was good; I did not have to travel to any agency," Mr Shegar said. "I spent just 20 minutes applying for my Liquor Licence using this online service."

Different licences have different processing times. Users will be notified if there are changes to the application status via email or SMS, depending on the notification modes they select at the application stage.

More Services, Greater Convenience

The OBLS has now broadened its scope to include Updating, Renewals and Terminations (URT) modules. The URT modules allow businesses to update, renew or terminate 45 different types of licences through the OBLS. Previously, the OBLS only permitted businesses to apply for new licences.

This new feature, which offers time and cost savings to businesses, eliminates the need for them to deal with different government agencies for different licensing services. For instance, by using the Update module, the applicant would only need to complete one integrated form when updating licensing information to more than one agency.

In the case of multiple renewals, a consolidated payment mechanism allows for one-time payment for multiple licence fees, eliminating the need to make separate payments. After logging in, users can save selected licences in a "Licence Cart", which works just like a virtual shopping cart. They can even save their selections for retrieval during a later session.

The OBLS system only accepts online payment modes: Credit card (Visa or Mastercard), Direct Debit through your internet banking account or FlexiPay (GIRO-On-Demand). Flexipay is an arrangement that allows users to make online payments to various Government agencies by signing only a single Direct Debit Authorisation (DDA) form.

The OBLS, which was officially launched in January 2004, has a total of 71 licences available for online application. Since then, more than 19,000 online applications have been received. This e-Service was awarded the 2005 United Nations Public Service Award in the Category of "Application of information and communication technology (ICT) in Government: Local eGovernment". This award recognises Singapore's contribution to the business community in the areas of enhanced service delivery, re-engineered government operations and e-Participation.

The OBLS service is currently offered free at http://www.business.gov.sg/licences. Users only need to pay for the administrative and licence fees (if applicable) associated with the licences.