Article Image Alt Text

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, Charlie Browne, outlined the benefits of embracing technology to increase efficiency.

MILLIONS COLLECTED

IN just five months, the EZpay Plus payments platform has netted over $2 million in revenue for the Government.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, Charlie Browne, said since its September 2019 launch, the system which allows persons to pay for several government services online through the use of credit and debit cards and mMoney, collected millions of dollars in stark contrast to the same period for 2018.

“Through this new payment platform, Government has collected just over $2.25 million as compared to $400,000 for the same period the year before. This is an increase of over 516 per cent,” he revealed during the opening ceremony of the SciTech Festival at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies yesterday.

Currently, citizens are able to pay land tax, for the Official Gazette, NIS contributions, professional licenses, telecoms licenses and certificates of character, while agents can top up and pay for services at the Corporate Affairs and the Intellectual Property Office. However, Browne outlined that several more services would soon be added to the list.

“In the coming months, services scheduled to be added include liquor licensing, Government Electrical Engineering Department applications, service providers licenses and foreign currency permits at the Ministry of International Business and Industry and business name registrations at the Corporate Affairs and the Intellectual Property Office,” he said.

Browne also spoke on Government’s signing onto a US$40 million loan contract with the Inter-American Development Bank for the creation of an e-services platform, an electronic document records management system and a human resource information management system.

Giving an update on the digitisation programme, he said so far 66,000 records have been digitised within the Police Certificate of Character project; 211,000 records within the Immigration Department; and 3,000 records at the Registration Department.

“The Lands and Surveys Department is another agency targeted for digitisation where over 123,000 records will be digitised. Digitization at that department would enable each plot of land in Barbados to be identified and tagged, which will assist persons in getting titles easier and will also allow valuations for land tax purposes to be done clearly and easily and land registration to be done more readily,” Browne assured.

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000