ANDREA MORRIS was waiting in line at the Cross Roads Collectorate of the Inland Revenue Department in early December when she learned she could save some time by using 'plastic' to pay.
Like many others at the tax office that morning, she did not know that there are lines for debit and credit card holders that offer quicker service to the government's customers. The facility is available at all but three of the island's 28 collectorates but they are likely to be connected by the end of the year.
Many Jamaicans know what a credit card is, even if they don't have one. But not as many know that their automated banking machine (ABM) card are debit cards, and like credit cards, can be used for payments at the island's tax collectorates.
Luckily for Miss Morris she had her debit card and could use the new facility.
"The Customs and Inland Revenue departments are fully equipped not only to handle credit cards but debit cards," said Clyde Singh, the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Assistant General Manager for Card Products. His bank is the latest of several financial institutions to allow their customers to use the card facility at the collectorates.
"We started the system because of requests from our cardholders," said Mr. Singh. "It is convenient to the customer in not having to determine exactly how much money to carry."
"Cards from all banks are accepted as payment," said Franklyn Taylor, a Director in the Financial Management Division of the Ministry of Finance. "Only the NCB (National Commercial Bank) Keycard is not yet part of the programme at the Inland Revenue Department, and it is expected to be on stream by year end."
"Using a debit or credit card, the customer avoids carrying a large sum of cash, said Mr. Taylor. "This is cheaper than using a cheque and there is less difficulty getting approval," he told the government's JIS news service.
The government also gains from the use of these cards, he said. Electronic methods of payment are cheaper and safer than handling large volumes of cash.
"There is no difficulty finding change as in a cash transaction," the Finance Ministry Director pointed out, adding that the funds were credited quickly and efficiently to the Government's accounts.
"It wasn't very popular at the beginning," recalled Clive Nicholas, Director General of the Tax Administrative Services Department, when asked about the response to the new payment option. "But what we have noticed is that the number of users has been increasing."
"We have been trying to find ways of making it easier for our customers to pay their taxes," the Director General said. Using the system, the Customs Department has collected $30 million over the past year and the tax collectorates have taken in another $30 million in just the past six months.
"It is easier to pay bills this way," Mr. Nicholas said. "It is going to become more and more popular as we go along."
Jamaica's banks have issued 750,000 debit cards, said Edmundo Jenez, general manager of JETS Limited. The company manages the banking industry's 'Multilink' facility that allows subscribing financial institutions to create a unified network for their ABM card holders.
"Automated banking machine use is increasing 27 per cent per annum," Mr. Jenez said. "People are changing their payment options." Mentioning that "there is a small charge involved in using a debit card," he pointed out that this was a minor inconvenience: "If you were robbed on the way to pay a large bill, it would probably cover several years of debit card charges."
"People coming back from abroad often spend their last dollar, so when they reach the airport they have no money to pay taxes," Mr. Nicholas said. This made the use of debit and credit cards at Customs particularly helpful, he observed.
