Dubai Economy renews 33,874 licences through its ‘Auto Renewal’ service

Dubai Economy’s Auto Renewal service accounted for 68 per cent of trade licences renewed, equalling 33,874, in the first four months of 2020.

Of them, 73 per cent were commercial while 24 per cent were professional.

The Business Registration & Licencing (BRL) sector in Dubai Economy also recorded a 62 per cent increase in auto renewal transactions during the same time, compared to the same period in 2019.

A BRL report showed that ‘Limited Liability Companies’ topped the list of legal forms of the auto-renewed licences, followed by ‘Sole Proprietorship’ and ‘Civil Companies’ during the first four months of 2020.

On March 12, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of Dubai Executive Council, launched an economic stimulus package to support business continuity in the emirate, which has facilitated the issuance and renewal processes of licences.

The package enables companies to renew their trade licences without a renewed lease contract, in addition to offering a 12-month easy installment option for fee payments with zero down payment.

Previously, the process of licence renewal entailed four visits and seven steps: ‘inquiring about the service’ on the website or through the call centre; ‘applying for the service’ (visit) to submit the required documents and obtain external approvals, followed by ‘external approvals’ (visit) based on the business activity and visits to government agencies to obtain approvals; attestation of ‘lease/real estate ownership certificate’; ‘submitting the required documents’ (visit); ‘Dubai Municipality payment voucher’, and lastly, ‘paying the fees’ (visit).

“Now, business owners can renew the business licence through the Auto Renewal service in one step by sending a text message with the trade licence number to ‘6969,’ following which they will receive a ‘payment voucher.’ They can then complete the payment through any of the payment channels provided in the text message. This is done without any visits and zero paperwork,” Dubai Economy explained.

“Business owners must update their personal data for the BRL sector team to provide services more effectively, as the sector seeks to strengthen the mechanisms necessary to conduct commercial activities in Dubai through following the latest technology and smart programmes,” it concluded.