From left to right: Rodney Taylor, Director DPD, MIST, Alison Browne-Ellis, Director Cave Shepherd Card Services and Revenue Commissioner (ag) Wayne Forde during yesterday’s press briefing.
The Barbados Revenue Authority (BRA) is working towards becoming more citizen-centric, by providing options which allow taxpayers to interact with its services at a time and place which is convenient to them.
As a matter of fact, Revenue Commissioner (Ag) Wayne Forde admits that BRA’s intention is for taxpayers to visit its offices only when they have an issue.
Yesterday, he pointed to this while officially announcing that BRA has marked another milestone in its journey to improve service delivery and integrate technology – the availability of Cave Shepherd Card Services Mobile App as a payment platform for Land Tax.
This is in addition to Government’s recently rebranded and relaunched payment platform EZpay+, giving property owners two digital channels through which to pay Land Tax.
“Both of these initiatives were born out of the mandate to make doing business with government institutions easier for those persons who have to access the services. With Government spearheading the modernisation and digital transformation of the public sector, this is but one aspect of how we at the Revenue Authority are helping to fulfil that vision.”
Forde went on to explain that the initiative with Cave Shepherd Card Services, is a good example of public and private sector partnership towards facilitating ease and increasing efficiency in its operations.
He said that rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, BRA is engaging stakeholders from within the public and private sectors, “so that we can better streamline our processes such that we can deliver better services.”
“Working collaboratively is key to the betterment of Barbados. This is another step in enhancing our service delivery journey and it is definitely not the last you will be hearing from the Authority in this regard,” he stated, further revealing that other plans are in the works for BRA to further support Government’s digital transformation vision while simultaneously enhancing the service experience.
“I can share that we are currently working on expanding online payments to the other taxes in the not too distant future, but I cannot give you a definitive date at this time. You can be assured however, that it is an initiative on which we are working.” (TL)