It will soon be pos­si­ble to make pay­ments for gov­ern­ment ser­vices elec­tron­i­cal­ly. Fi­nance Min­is­ter Lar­ry Howai yes­ter­day an­nounced that reg­u­la­tions to al­low for In­ter­net-based pay­ments will be rolled out over the next 18 to 24 months.

The min­is­ter, who made a state­ment in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives yes­ter­day on the Ex­che­quer and Au­dit (Elec­tron­ic Funds Trans­fer) Reg­u­la­tions 2015, said the changes will al­low cit­i­zens to make pay­ments at gov­ern­ment of­fices us­ing deb­it and cred­it cards."This means that cit­i­zens will no longer need to walk with ex­act cash when they come to a gov­ern­ment of­fice to trans­act busi­ness," he said.

Howai said the new sys­tem, which is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed in con­juc­tion with In­foLink and com­mer­cial banks, will re­sult in re­duced trans­ac­tion pro­cess­ing costs, im­proved ef­fi­cien­cy and in­creased vis­i­bil­i­ty and con­trol.At present most gov­ern­ment pay­ments are made by cheques and re­ceipts by way of over-the-counter trans­ac­tions.