The Investment Promotion Authority of Papua New Guinea wishes to advises its valued clients, stakeholders and the general public that its new registry system has gone live since December 1st 2022.
At this stage data is being migrated from the old system to the new one. This is necessary because we are not just upgrading the same system, but instead we are doing away with the old one migrating to a totally new and different system.
We will continue to update you on the progress of this transition. For now, these are the key messages you need to appreciate and understand at this stage of the project.
1: Key features in the current status of the system
The following are the immediate changes that clients should be aware of:
- Lodging paper forms to update entity records has been ceased. All other changes and updates for entities MUST be done online.
- To register any new entity, or to use any of the services, you first need to create an online user account which is free of charge. Clients coming to lodge paper forms at the IPA counters will be assisted to create their online user accounts.
- New registration application can be lodged either manually or online for clients already with online user accounts. At the time of the lodging the application forms, IPA officers will assist you create your online user accounts if you have not created one yet; and then lodge your applications through your newly created use account.
- Extracts are now known as Certificate of Good Standing which contains the PNG Crest and similarly for the new-look business certificates. When you are registering and new business entity, the system will send you a copy of the new-look certificate and a Certificate of Good Standing short form. Contact ipaonline@ipa.gov.pg if you do not receive one.
- Most fees remain the same. Business entities can now top up their prepaid accounts directly using credit or debit cards and BSP Pay. These entities can also make payments via direct deposits using IPA’s customized deposit forms. EFTPOS and Bank Cheques through the IPA front counter at IPA Haus. The process through the front counter is longer hence clients are encouraged to use the online portal.
- When searching for an entity at this stage, the system will only show business entity name, registration number, date of registration and the status. This is because the full data migration is still in progress.
- All companies are now required to re-register while non-companies (Business Names, Associations, Business Groups and Foreign Enterprises) are required to provide transactional updates.
2: Certificate of Good Standing
Extracts are now known as Certificate of Good Standing (CGS) and IPA has resumed the charging of fees. You can request for CGS short form at a fee of K20.00 which contains only the current information of a business entity. Or you can request for a CGS long form at a fee of K50.00 which contains the historical information of the business entity.
The CGS carries more authority then an extract as the Registrar no longer requires to write to a third party to confirm a good standing of a business entity. The CGS you produce for your purpose automatically confirms your status on the business registry.
Note: Currently; full data migration is still in progress hence, CGS for both long and short forms may not be available. Contact IPA on ipaonline@ipa.gov.pg to get a copy.
3: Re-Registration of companies
The data migration from the old registry into the new one is still in progress. Since you have a full year to re-register, IPA requests that you wait until data migration is completed to re-register. This will be much easier for you as you will not have to re-type all your company details.
Under the Companies (Amended ) Act 2022, all Companies must re-register by 30th November 2023 for free. Upon re-registration, a certificate of re-registration and a CGS short form will be emailed to the applicant.
Corporations who have outstanding Annual Returns will only be charged a one-off fee of K500.00 during the re-registration process. Corporations that fall to re-register within this period will be removed from the registry.
The re-registration process is important for companies because:
- They will able to take authority over their company during this process which will allow them to update and file annual returns and manage their own records in the future. The IPA aims to have a clean and updated registry of business entity records and currently it is impossible to ascertain which companies are operating or not.
- Over 90% of companies are non-compliant. As such, IPA has made compliance simpler and cheaper for Companies which have outstanding annual returns through the re-registration process.
4: Transitional updates of non-companies
Business Names, Business Groups and Associations will need to update their records before transiting to the new registry system. They will NOT be charged any fees. Once the data has been updated the status of the existing registered business entities will now show as “ Registered”
5: Online User Accounts
Clients who have an existing online account should expect an email from the system prompting them to create new passwords for their accounts. If for some reason you do not receive the email from the system, simply go to the website and log in using your current user name. The system will email a link to change your password before you can actually access your dashboard.
Those with no online user accounts MUST create one by simply clicking on the “Create Account” button on the top right side of the Home Page of www.ipa.gov.pg and follow the prompts.
Those with existing accounts and authority will be able to view their account balances.
6: Resubmissions & follow ups
In order to prepare for the full data migration and the decommissioning of the legacy data base (old registry) IPA will not accept any resubmission of documents that were returned for amendments by 1st February 2023. This includes any fillings and receipts made under the old system.
7: Business activities listed in the registry
The business activities are the PNG Standard Industrial Classifications taken from the PNG National Statistics Office. You will note that the online business service forms contain the 17 major divisions or activities. These major activities are further classified into sub divisions. If you are not sure which activity to choose from you can check the sub divisions of these activities in the PNG Standard Industrial Classification which can be sighted in the IPA website at www.ipa.gov.pg Go to download located on the top right-hand page and click on “ Helpful Links”
For more information, please go to our website and click on the “Business Entity Registry” and click on the respective guides.
You can also contact us on ;
Ph: 308 4400 / 308 4494 / 308 4443 / 308 4439
Email: ipaonline@ipa.gov.pg
Social Media: www.facebook.com/PNG Investment Promotion Authority
Authorized for release by:
Mr. Clerence M Hoot
Managing Director, Papua New Guinea Investment Promotion Authority
Dated: 23rd December 2022