EDITORIAL: Online renewals long overdue
BY now we have all heard the news that Barbadians will no longer have to wait in long lines to renew their driver’s licences, as they can now log on to the EZpay+ platform at www.ezpay.gov.bb and choose the driver’s licence renewal option.
It was reported in recent times that Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, Senator Kay McConney, did indicate that 120,000 Barbadians are expected to benefit from such a process. She noted that citizens who sign up on EZpay+ have the option of making payments from their bank account or credit card. The present online platform also allows for payment of land tax, corporate registration fees and subscriptions to the Barbados Gazette, the Government’s official newspaper. The Barbados Postal Service (BPS) meanwhile will be teaming up to provide the services of delivering renewed licences to customers who make the request. For a non-refundable fee of $16, motorists can have their licences delivered by the BPS Post Express courier service. They must exchange their expired licence for the new one, however.
Now there is a view that such a system is long overdue. It has been talked about for some time, then promised and now it is coming on stream. It is as if the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a shift in the way business can be done and this we can say, is one positive emerging out of the pandemic.
If we cast our minds back, it was last September that Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, said the task of renewing one’s driver’s licence would be easier than the current process of signing up for a United States visa online, given that the EZpay+ platform would offer citizens a convenient, simple, secure and fast way of paying for government services. It was said then that the EZpay+ platform could be used to pay land tax, National Insurance contributions, subscriptions to The Official Gazette, telecommunications licences and business registrations with the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office. Other services to come on stream, it was noted, included the revamped police certificate of character, passports, visas and driver’s licences.
“When we all want a US visa, we upload a photograph. Applying for a visa is the most arduous task digitally, I think any of us have ever experienced. The Government of Barbados will not ask anybody in Barbados to go through such an arduous journey, but again, with respect to not just the payment of the licensing side but certainly that entire process, in the way that licences are issued and validated, needs to be also validated as part of the system,” Minister Straughn said back then.
“So if we can get a visa by uploading a photograph that we took at the local shop which meets the requirements, then the process to get a driver’s licence will be much simpler than applying for a US visa. So we are working to bring that to fruition, because the length of time it takes at certainly the Pine in particular, where the Revenue Authority is working in collaboration with the Licensing Authority, (is too long),” Straughn further noted at the time.
Well, the time has now come for online renewal of the licences. We can only hope the process goes smoothly. Nonetheless, many Barbadians must be breathing a sigh of relief, given their wait for this long overdue service.