Sri Lanka automates revenue administration
View(s):By Bandula Sirimanna
The Ministry of Finance is moving towards the automation of its core activities in a bid to improve efficiency, transparency and financial flexibility in a government saddled by dwindling revenue, Ministry sources said.
The ministry will be introducing an Integrated Treasury Management Information System (ITMIS) to automate its key departments and cut across various functions of the treasury activities, a senior official told the Business Times.
This fully computerised system will ensure proper and effective management in revenue administration and integrated treasury operations, he added.
He said that it is appropriate to make a paradigm change in the age old financial administration system doing away with paper work and file maintenance at the ministry and Treasury.
The Treasury functions which are proposed to be automated include budgetary preparation, financial commitment control, cash flow management, fiscal planning and financial reporting.
It will also facilitate the preparation of variable based and query based reports etc.
ITMIS will be interfaced with the Inland Revenue Department’s “Revenue Administration Management Information System” (RAMIS) to ensure that there is fiscal /revenue/consolidation having accounted for and having reconciled all aspects on more frequent basis, following and initial study of the treasury business process and operations. Bids have been called under the international competitive bidding process to award the tender for the implementation of the project soon he revealed.
Meanwhile the Inland Revenue Department’s “Revenue Administration Management Information System” (RAMIS) is also underway to address inefficiencies in the current revenue management system, officials said.
It is a joint initiative with the Asian Development Bank as part of its on-going Financial Management Efficiency Project.
This will lead to a more accountable system for increasing revenue collection by enabling access to timely and accurate information needed for crucial decision making, they added.
Furthermore, the Sri Lanka Customs Department is now at the final stages of its paperless clearing system installation.
The new paperless clearing system will help Customs authorities ensure that legitimate trade is facilitated with minimum delays and at minimum costs at the country’s major port of entries, a media release issued by the department revealed.
For the first time the Customs will launch the fully automated export documentation system soon, it said.
Customs will launch the electronic Cargo Dispatch Note (CDN) system, on May 6th to create awareness among the trade on the new changes.
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