ARTA urges gov’t agencies anew to digitize payment systems

Landbank adheres to the Ease of Doing Business mandate under the Anti-Red Tape Act. Image from Landbank

MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) on Thursday renewed its call for government agencies to digitize their payment systems.

ARTA Director General Jeremiah Belgica said such is part of the goals of the Republic Act no. 11032 or Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 which seeks to digitize government processes.

“Transacting with the government has to be automated and electronically reachable end-to-end because if at any stage—submission of applications, receipt of assessments, payment, or release thereof—there is a need for physical processing at the concerned office, then it fails to achieve the goal of automation,” Belgica said in a statement.

“A partially automated system with manual is still manual,” he added.

Belgica said government agencies may consider Landbank’s digital services for their payments since almost all of them already have existing accounts with the state financial institution.

“We initially target to have our first 100 priority agencies tap the digital payments offered by Landbank in a bid to take away 50-percent of the problem in their processes,” Belgica said.

Belgica also called on other public banks to upgrade their online systems to be at par with their private counterparts.

“We will be requesting a meeting with them to discuss digital payment or banking systems,” Belgica said.

Earlier this month, ARTA called on local governments units who use the Integrated Business Permits and Licensing System (iBPLS) to also utilize Landbank’s Link.BizPortal.

This portal is an e-Payment facility that allows clients to carry out transactions with the government and the private sector via the internet. — McKenzie Kinsella, trainee