Under the agreement with Digicel, Cable & Wireless and MiPhone, the Government will send information alerts on taxes and other matters to cell phone users via text messaging, commerce and technology minister Phillip Paulwell announced Thursday. Paulwell also announced that under the e-Government initiative led by his ministry, persons doing business with Government will see an end to waiting in line in about five years.
In his presentation to the launch of the Government's Internet Tax portal, e-Jamaica, at the Pegasus hotel in Kingston Thursday, Paulwell not only promised to eliminate lines, but also the use of paper documents.
But he offered no specific time frame for the latter undertaking.
The next phase of applications will include portal links to the Trade Board, the Jamaica Trade Point, and other trade and tax facilitation mechanisms.
Paulwell says the e-services initiatives were already getting positive response from the public.
At Jamaica Customs, for example, 297,000 online transactions were logged between January 1, 2003 and December 3 this year, he said.
Online payments over the period amounted to $1 billion, almost triple the $366 million received the year prior.
Autor: Michael Edwards
Quelle: The Jamaica Observer, 12.12.2004
