QUEZON CITY -- The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) is urging anew government agencies to digitalize their payments.

Secretary Jeremiah Belgica, Director General of ARTA, issued the call in a bid to attain the target digitalization of government processes in line with the objectives of Republic Act no. 11032 or Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018.

This is also in accordance to the desire for e-governance of President Rodrigo Duterte, which he expressed in his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) last 26 July 2021 at the plenary hall of the House of Representatives.

“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,” he said.

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

The anti-red tape czar said government agencies may consider LANDBANK’s digital services for their digital payments given that almost all of them already have existing accounts with the said 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,” Sec. Belgica said.

The said priority agencies refer to transactional offices in government.

Sec. Belgica is also calling on other public banks to upgrade their online systems and be at par with their private counterparts.

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

Earlier this month, the Authority called on local government units who are using the Integrated Business Permits and Licensing System (iBPLS) to also utilize LANDBANK’s Link.BizPortal.

The said portal is an e-Payment facility that allows clients to carry out transactions with the government and the private sector on the internet. (ARTA)