Acquiring a business license in Tonga will now be easier under a new Business License Registration Regulation. It comes as part of parliament’s amendments to the Business Registration Act last year.

The new regulation will make business licenses permanent, and removes the previous requirement of annual re-registration.

License registration fees have also been made cheaper, $115 compared with the previous fee of $138.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism the changes in the Business Registration process is in preparation for a new online service that will enable licenses to be registered online. On-line application fees will be halved of manual applications fees of $100.

According to Distaquaine Tu'ihalamaka from the Ministry of Commerce, Tongan businesses with 2012 Business Licenses will benefit greatly from the new regulations because it would make the process cheaper and a permanent license would get rid of costly annual $115 re-registration fees.