SHAH ALAM: Selangor is the first state in the country that has established a set of guidelines for licensing and registration for online businesses, says Ng Sze Han.
The Selangor local government committee chairman said the main purpose of providing these guidelines was to help home-based online businesses flourish.
"Prior to today, the response was less encouraging because it had not been officially announced.
"Previously, local councils in the state had received many enquiries and complaints from traders, because when they applied for a licence for their online businesses, the licence could not be issued.
"With these guidelines, they can now get an official licence, and their business will grow because they are a legal entity and consumers will also be more confident," Ng said after officiating the online business registration and licensing guidelines for Selangor at the state secretariat building here on Thursday (March 16).
Present at the ceremony were Petaling Jaya mayor Mohamad Azhan Md. Azmir and Selangor deputy secretary (development) Datuk Johary Anuar.
In reading Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari’s speech, Ng said in 2019, a discussion was held between Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) where it was revealed there were 41,148 online businesses registered in Selangor.
"We hope SSM can share this data with local councils in Selangor for us to compare the data we have.
"In addition, a series of workshops were held in 2019 and 2020 to discuss the proposal to establish guidelines for online business registration and licensing that were attended by all local authorities in Selangor.
"Officers involved in the workshop consisted of those from the Selangor state economic planning unit as well as state local authority officers from the city planning, law, licensing and enforcement departments," he said.
Ng added that while the state government had waived the fee for online businesses last year, this year, a minimum annual charge of RM100 will be imposed.
Since the guidelines came into force on Jan 1 last year, the state government had received a total of 110 online business registrations in 2022 and 27 licence applications this year.
A total of 14 applications were considered and approved for the granting of licences this year.
However, the remaining 13 applications were still undergoing activity review, and licence type and compliance reviews.
The ceremony also saw the awarding of certificates of appreciation to 12 online business owners who registered and applied for online business licenses with the 12 local councils in Selangor.
