In an ideal e-government situation, this delivery mechanism should improve access to government services, speed things up, and make things more efficient. No more long queues at Home Affairs - e-government should mean you could apply for a visa, passport, or ID book online or through another technologically enabled delivery mechanism. Your driver's licence could be requested, your UIF payment requested electronically, and your pet licence renewed, all without facing a single queue. South Africa is not quite there yet, but it is making progress. n the 2003 e-government newsletter of Hologram, the Horizontal Learning Programme, a partnership of the South African Local Government Association, the Department of Provincial and Local Government, the Local Government Transformation Programme, and USAID, Shanil Haricharan defines e-government as "the use of ICT to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information, and make [the] government more accountable to citizens. E-government might involve delivering services via the Internet, telephone, kiosks (self-service or facilitated by others), wireless devices or other communications systems."
Already, there is no more dashing to the local SARS (South African Revenue Service) office to file your tax return - you can do that online now with SARS' free e-filing service, which was launched in June 2003. At the e-filing web site (www.efiling.gov.za/), you can submit your returns via the Internet and also make secure tax payments online.
SARS is confident that e-filing is the way to go. Its web site states: "As Internet usage in South Africa has soared (both domestic and in businesses), SARS' research clearly expects a high adoption rate amongst taxpayers."
The site goes on to say that considering that the online target market of this service stands at approximately 2.5 million individuals, companies, vendors, and employers submitting in excess of 7.5 million returns per annum, and that the annual revenue collected in respect of these returns is R60 billion in VAT, R1.4 billion in SDL (Skills Development Levies), which was due to double in the 2001/2002 tax year, R90 billion in PAYE (Personal Taxes), and R30 billion in Company Tax, it is clear that the offering of this service could lead to a substantial migration from manual processing and payment to e-commerce submission and settlement.
SARS lists the benefits of e-filing to the citizen as including a detailed record of all returns and payments submitted to SARS, quicker turnaround time on submissions and queries, additional three- to five-day window to submit certain payments, full support via the Web or dedicated call centre, 24-hours-a-day, all-year-round access to the online service and reminders via email or SMS.
E-Government Revisited
- Other E-Government Initiatives
- The Broader Perspective
- Interactive Mobile Services
- Challenges For The Developing World
