Internal Revenue Department (IRD) invited qualified service providers to submit Expression of Interest (EOI) to build ICT system, which will enable taxpayers to use mobile banking

Taxpayers may soon be able to pay their dues to the government via mobile banking, said U Min Htut, director general of the Internal Revenue Department (IRD). 

The IRD is now inviting qualified service providers including the banks and mobile money service operators to submit Expressions of Interest (EOI) to develop an information and communications technology (ICT) system which will enable taxpayers to use mobile banking to pay their monthly commercial and special goods taxes as well as quarterly income taxes.

By making it more convenient for taxpayers to make payments, the government hopes to collect more taxes and maximise revenues at a time when public spending is expected to rise in the coming fiscal year.

“There has been a rise in the number of mobile banking and mobile money service providers in Myanmar. We hope to leverage on this to make it easier for taxpayers, who will no longer need to show up physically at the tax office to pay their taxes in the future,” U Min Htut said. 

The IRD is now talking to the Central Bank of Myanmar on whether it should charge taxpayers a transaction fee for the use of mobile banking or a percentage service charge proportional to the amount of taxes paid, said U Min Htut.

The move to mobile banking comes after the IRD last year launched an online payment option in collaboration with the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU). Via MPU’s system, users are charged a K1,000 transaction fee each time they pay their taxes online.

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/ird-build-ict-system-enabling-tax-payments.html )

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