A collaborative effort between the government and the Audrey Marks-led company, the initiative enables members of the public to make payments for specific tax types through the Jamaica tax portal online payment facility, developed and maintained by state agency, Fiscal Services Limited, for the Tax Administration Department.

The project will be introduced islandwide on a phased basis, starting in 21 of Paymaster's 170 locations this week and 28 next week.

Speaking at the launch, state minister with responsibility for local government, in the Office of the Prime Minister, Robert Montague said that despite the progress made in e-government service delivery in recent years, infrastructure constraints such as limited Internet access and credit card penetration, still hampered the full roll-out.

"Not withstanding the latter as a limitation to our efforts, we have recognised that technology has transformed the way we do business and Paymaster is partnering with us in reducing some of these limitations."

The government minister said both parties are now in discussion regarding the collection of other fees on behalf of parish councils. The collaboration is expected to send more revenues to Paymaster's bottom line while giving a needed boost to the state's coffers.

Paymaster now does payment collections for 52 companies and has a 1.4 million customer base, processing about 550,000 transactions every month.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com