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No intention to hinder businesses
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Posted on Oct 31 2006
Please allow us the opportunity to respond to Ms. Gloria W. Hunter’s Oct. 26 letter to the editor regarding Tropical Island Transportation. We applaud and congratulate Tropical Island in their new venture and we do encourage more locals as well as other individuals or entities to establish businesses in the CNMI. We know that if more services and goods are provided locally, domestic consumers will have more choices to select from and competition will keep everyone in balance.
The situation with Tropical Island is that they do have a valid business license issued by Finance, but their business activity is transporting paying consumers from point A to point B and this is where our department comes into play.
To wit, PL 7-33, Section 4(p) and Taxicab Regulations No. 1500, Part A, Section 1501.1 clearly defines taxicab as “a passenger vehicles for hire, other than an motorbus, which is built for that purpose, and includes a sedan type vehicle having a seating capacity of less than eight passengers.”
Our office must also perform a physical inspection of the vehicle to ensure that the exterior of the vehicle is free from cracks, breaks, and major dents, while the interior must be clean and safe from objects not to inflict bodily harm to passengers.
Look at it from another standpoint. The Department of Finance can issue a business license to a restaurant operator, but that operator must also have to secure food handler’s certificate from the Bureau of Environmental Health, Certificate of Occupancy from the Department of Public Works, etc., prior to opening their doors to patrons.
It is never our intention to discourage Tropical Island Transportation from operating this type of business; however, we encourage Tropical Island Transportation as well as other individuals and entities who are engaging in transporting people for pay to come into our office and seek assistance to ensure that they comply with existing laws which our office is tasked to administer.
[B]James A. Santos[/B] [I]SecretaryDepartment of Commerce
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