IRC taking steps to make its administrative functions more effective 

The Internal Revenue Commission [IRC] is determined to be modern, agile and robust tax administrator.

IRC Commissioner Sam Koim said they have taken measured initiatives and steps, including implementation of Section 65A of GST Act [2003].

The Section 65A notice requires government entities or state-owned entities to pay GST associated with invoices issued to them directly to IRC, meaning the recipient deducts the GST amount from the invoice payment to the supplier and remits it directly to the IRC.

He said all these processes will become robust and they are investing heavily into digital transformation and data analytics capabilities since 2021.

"We would like to automate a lot of our business process, so it reduces a lot of discretion and human involvement and errors, so we invest into the digital transformation space and build our analytics capabilities as well," Mr Koim said.

"We want to make sure we have the right size and right skill for our teams.

"We have also emphasized effective mechanism collection. We have implemented GST section 65A so we are now exploring ways we can collect tax without a lot of administration burdens associated with,” Mr Koim said.

The transformation will be applied across various wings of IRC.

It will cover the processes involved in various taxes including Interest Withholding Tax, Personal Income Tax, GST, Salary and Wages Tax, Departure Tax, Dividend Withholding Tax and others. 

Mr Koim said the reason they are doing this is to ensure staff burden is reduced but most importantly to establish a mechanism that will not affect tax collection in the future.

"What we are envisioning is we want to be an organization performing at the optimal level but agile enough to address emerging challenges when they arise."