From e-Filing to e-Flying
Technology is meant to improve life, not to aggravate it
May 16, 2006
How did you file your income tax returns this year, by manual submission or e-Filing? Let me tell you this, I tried e-Filing. I gave up, and returned to paper submission.
Despite the hype, the Inland Revenue Board just isn’t ready with the electronic tax returns processes. My benchmark is the electronic visa application process employed by the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, which has a similar methodology. You need Internet connection, filling of electronic forms and final output in PDF. It’s done in a jiffy, as all information submitted electronically will be verified with the government’s backend databases. In contrast, our IRB is half-baked with their processes, with loopholes in between.
I was to eager to register for e-Filing, but was asked to visit an IRB branch office to collect a Personal Identification Number (PIN), a process that required me to physically produce my MyKad for verification. The officer would then key-in my IC number onto their terminal to call up my Income Tax account number. Once they tally, a pre-printed PIN, issued in collaboration with certification authority (CA) Trustgate, was given to me. That is after the officer had written down the serial number of the PIN onto a logbook typified with hand-drawn columns for names, IC number, Income tax number and PIN serial number. I then had to acknowledge receipt by putting down my physical signature in the logbook. I swear that this hybrid of manual record plus computer-aided processes will soon create gawks and gaps in data integrity. However, to be fair, I was later notified that manual PIN collection was replaced with an online process. So an early bird, like me, did deserve a reward. Guinea pig.
Try the e-Filing proper, and problems, errors and doubts surfaced to defeat you.
First, it was “Pendaftaran Sijil Digital Anda Tidak Berjaya”. Then, it was “Pemegang No. K/P pengenalan ini belum cukup umur 18 tahun”. I tried and tried, and somehow got over it. Then came that last stinger when I finally got to the part on deductions for children. The column was there but the field was blocked out and I couldn’t put in my daughter’s particulars. Was IRB trying to deny me my rebates?
It’s déjà vu. Technology is supposed to make life easy, not to complicate and aggravate it. In the case of IRB, how do you justify spending millions on technology upgrades only to find it complicating and useless? How could they bring out the bride when the make-up isn’t ready?
Meanwhile, our contemporaries who have approached IT in business processes have zoomed past us. Let me share some experiences in air travels, the service sector that demands mission-critical IT infrastructure and customer satisfaction benchmarking.
I have, in recent years, changed to Singapore Airlines and, at times, have to transit via Changi Airport. One reason is to reward myself with a better passenger handling experience, and the other is to observe how our competitors are upgrading their business processes to stay globally competent. Basically, my only sacrifice is to endure hours lost through transit and connecting flights.
Singapore Airlines has an innovative use of emails and SMS, two killer applications than our generation can no longer live without. By maintaining an active account with KrisFlyer, you not only earn air-mile rewards with SIA and the StarAlliance consortium, you can now check-in for your outgoing and return flights, and determine your preferred seats -- online – four days ahead of take-off.
You can have an option of having the confirmation delivered to you via email, or SMS to your registered mobilephone, wherever you are in the world. With that done, even an economy class traveller could beat the long queue at busy airports to check-in and obtain your boarding pass at the speed normally reserved for business and first class passengers. That’s because SIA has a special check-in counter for Internet Check-in, worldwide, to issue the boarding pass.
I tested that several times, even holding an e-Ticket that’s no more than a piece of printout. The SIA boarding pass that I collected, which carried my KrisFlyer number, enabled me to enjoy at least 15% rebates at airport lounges, F&B outlets and merchandise outlets in Changi, Manila and selected Australian cities.
The other awe I had was that my airmiles were updated on my KrisFlyer account barely eight hours I have competed a flight. I did no extra steps to make this happen as SIA has auto-captured my flight details at the point of boarding. Because of that, even my retrospective airmile claims could be confirmed within two hours, though I received an email, and later a snail, from its Head of Loyalty Programme who humbly stated that the missing airmiles would take four weeks to reconcile.
When Malaysia makes e-Filing and e-Flying a seamless user experience, we will surely see each other at the top.