Finance Minister Ardwell Irion
PHILIPSBURG--Persons will soon be able to pay for their employment permits, motor vehicle (road) tax and electrical inspections online and receive a receipt right away.
The initiative to allow for online payments for government service will be launched next week Friday, Finance Minister Ardwell Irion said on Wednesday. The launch will make St. Maarten the first amongst the CAS islands (Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten) to have such a payment system for government.
Irion told reporters at the virtual live Council of Ministers press briefing that the online payment system will not be “the typical online payment that we do now. So, for example, for the motor vehicle tax payment, where a person can send money from their bank account to government’s bank account and make the payment – no. We have now created a system where persons can create an account and when they log in, they will see their invoice and they can pay directly online and can receive a receipt one time.
“I believe that we would be the first between the CAS islands – Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten – to have a government where we can have fully online payments and we are starting with [employment – Ed.] permits, vehicle tax payment and electrical inspections.”
Irion said authorities are hoping to have all payments that can be made physically be possible online by the end of the year. This is an initiative that Irion had announced about six months ago.
“I am happy to see that a vision and an idea that we had last year finally come to fruition and I am also happy to have the support of the [Information and Communications Technology – Ed.] ICT Department, which saw a vision and was able to execute it and make it a reality. I am hoping to have this launched by next week Friday … and waiting to see the results of our online payment coming to realisation.”
