HCM CITY — HCM City’s administrative reforms are delivering results and there will be more of the same, city authorities have said.

Phạm Thị Thu Hương of Gò Vấp District told Nhân Dân (People) newspaper that it recently took her only 10 minutes to complete her income tax documents, down from the usual 30 minutes.

“The small number of visitors to the tax office and transparent guidelines posted on the Tax Department’s website which I read beforehand helped speed up the process.”

The greater use of information technology in carrying out administrative procedures has helped increase public satisfaction, authorities said.

Nguyễn Văn Thiện of the HCM City Tax Department said a few years ago the department could not handle all the paperwork despite having many employees, but things have become more efficient since the department resorted to IT and published all procedures and guidelines on its website.

Most of the documents are filled online, greatly reducing the time taken required at tax offices, he said.

The department said it has added a new feature to its electronic tax services that enables individuals and organisations without a digital signature to still file their tax returns online.

The department is on its way towards full digitisation of its services.

Existing e-services include online tax declaration, submission and receipt of tax-related documents and implementation of electronic invoicing system using the tax code provided by authorities.

The Department of Planning and Investment has also carried out administrative reforms by merging three different procedures required to establish an enterprise.

This has reduced the number of days required to complete the administrative procedures from nine to four, and so far this year more than 1,600 companies have made use of this, the department said.

Administrative reform is among the seven breakthrough programmes that HCM City has envisaged to become a smart city.

It is in the process of standardising administrative procedures: Since the beginning of this year it has issued 50 decisions to standardise 1,476 procedures, 980 at the city level, 156 at the district level, 108 at the ward level, and 230 at other agencies.

The standardised procedures have been published on the official websites of relevant agencies and national sites.

Though general procedures have been simplified, the overlap in procedures involving different agencies has not been addressed effectively.

The use of information technology is the basis for e-governance and making HCM City a smart city, authorities said. — VNS