Electronic receipt: Utility in paying fees and charges for administrative procedures

Recently, the Provincial Public Administration Service Center has made efforts to coordinate with agencies and units to effectively implement the collection of fees and charges for handling administrative procedures, especially in using  electronic receipt.

Currently, the Provincial Public Administration Service Center is handling 1,291 administrative procedures, of which 1,233 administrative procedures of 16 departments, commissions and sectors; 25 administrative procedures of the provincial social insurance agency; 14 administrative procedures of the Provincial Police; 19 administrative procedures of Lang Son Power Company. Right from the time the center came into operation (in 2019), the collection of administrative procedure fees and charges has been implemented in the form of direct collection and use of paper receipts provided by agencies and units with administrative procedures. This method has revealed many disadvantages such as organizations and individuals performed administrative procedures through online public services who want to get payment receipts, they must go directly to the center; difficult to monitor and control between the actual number of charge-generating records and the fee collected at the toll booth; the center does not actively monitor the collection of fees and charges.

Vietinbank staff, Lang Son branch, printed an electronic receipt to pay the administrative fee settlement fee paid to people at the provincial Public Administration Service Center

Mr. Bui Duc Trung, Deputy Director of the Provincial Public Administration Service Center  said: Faced with this fact, in November 2022, we developed and advised the Office of the Provincial People’s Committee on the plan to organize the collection of fees and charges for administrative procedures by electronic receipts. From February 2023, the use of electronic receipts is officially applied. Specifically, agencies and units authorized the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade of Vietnam Lang Son Branch (Vietinbank Lang Son) to automatically digitally sign the electronic receipt; organizations and individuals can pay fees and charges without limitation on location and time; electronic receipts are automatically digitally signed by the system, sent in soft copies to email box, Zalo or citizens can download themselves from the system.

Accordingly, the center has registered to concentrate on purchasing 10,000 electronic receipts for agencies and units that have administrative procedures carried out at the center, up to now, there are 12 sub-departments and 7 units under the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Health has switched to using electronic receipts. In addition, the center cooperated with relevant agencies to provide direct training in a “hands-on” manner on the steps to use the fee and fee collection process software for the officers of departments, commissions, sectors and employees of Vietinbank Lang Son. On the bank’s side, it has also implemented a subscription to digital signature services to use electronic receipt; arranged transaction counters, facilities (computers, printers, etc.) and appointed 1 staff to collect fees and charges at the center.

Mr. Chu Dinh Giao, an employee of Vietinbank Lang Son’s Customer Service Division (who is on duty at the charge and fee collection counter at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center) said: Every day I collect fees and charges for about 90 people. With such a large number of people, the implementation of electronic receipts helps me a lot, if there are mistakes, they can be corrected directly on the computer, without having to record them on paper receipts, save waiting time for individuals and organizations.

Although newly applied, the use of electronic receipts has shown its superiority in reducing the cost of buying paper invoices, storage costs, avoiding the risk of loss… Electronic receipts replacing paper receipts have contributed to improving work efficiency, significantly reducing time for individuals and organizations in implementing administrative procedures. From February 2023 to present, at the center, 487 electronic receipts have been issued with the total proceeds of over 135 million VND.

Mrs. Hoang Thu Hien, Dong Khao village, Van Linh commune, Chi Lang district, who came to carry out administrative procedures in the judicial field at the Provincial Public Administration Service Center, said: Previously, when I paid the administrative procedures fee at the center, I was given a paper receipt that was difficult to keep, if lost, I had to contact the unit I made to duplicate it, which took a lot of time. However, recently, when I received the electronic receipt, I found the information about the settlement procedure very clear from the name of the payer, the form of fee collection, the amount collected to the tax code of the collector.

From the proven effectiveness in practice, the use of electronic receipts really brings many conveniences in payment of fees and charges for administrative procedures. In the coming time, the Provincial Public Administration Service Center will continue to closely coordinate with agencies and units to implement the use of electronic receipts to achieve more results, contribute to the modernization of administrative procedure reform in particular and administrative reform in general in the province.