Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

In a strategic move towards advancing customer service excellence, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has upgraded three key services to align with the UAE’s pioneering ‘Government Services 2.0’ framework. This initiative falls under the Government Services Quality Charter, designed to elevate the efficiency and effectiveness of public services, guaranteeing a seamless and user-friendly experience for all customers.

In a press release today, the FTA revealed the successful implementation of three transformative strategies aimed at improving services for “Tax Refund for UAE Nationals Building New Residences”, “Issuance of Tax Certificates” and “ Excise Goods Registration Inquiry Response.”

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, the Director General of the Federal Tax Authority, emphasised that this initiative reflects the FTA’s commitment to elevating service standards to meet the highest global benchmarks and practices set forth in the Government Services Quality Charter.

Al Bustani explained, “The FTA has significantly ramped up its efforts to execute a comprehensive plan in line with the Government Services Quality Charter. It has implemented effective transformation measures to expedite the completion of three priority services, minimising required documentation to deliver tangible outcomes swiftly and enhance customer experience.

He further added, “In order to simplify procedures and enhance integration with other systems and entities, the FTA has refined the process for ‘Issuance of Tax Certificates’ to expedite their issuance and improve customer experience. This includes issuing the Tax Residency Certificates to enable applicants to benefit from tax treaties in which the UAE is a party, and the Tax Residency Certificate for Domestic purposes. Additionally, the FTA issues certificates for business activities. In terms of the chat service, the Authority has enhanced the ‘Excise Goods Registration Inquiry Response’ service to improve customer experiences and provide information about the services offered by the Authority through electronic systems to partners via a single channel.”

The Federal Tax Authority highlighted significant enhancements in three key services. These include cutting the processing time for the “Tax Refund for UAE Nationals Building New Residences” from 25 to 20 minutes. The number of steps was reduced from 6 to 5, and the fields were brought down from 35 to 28. Moreover, the FTA has also revamped its website’s search feature to incorporate a direct service application link on the most visited pages for easier access. The number of mandatory fields in the application process was reduced, thereby expediting applications by utilizing essential information from the UAE Pass.

The number of necessary documents for the ‘Issuance of Tax Certificates’ service has been cut down from 6 to 5, while reducing the number of fields from 12 to 9. The key service enhancement measures include refining the search feature on the Authority’s website for easier access to the service login link, automating data verification through electronic linkage, enabling the request for multiple certificate copies, integration with the UAE Pass, and providing Electronic Seal on the Digital Certificate for authenticity and validation.

The Federal Tax Authority clarified that for “Excise Goods Registration Inquiry Response”, the service application time has been reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes, and the service delivery time has been cut from 2 days to 5 minutes. Key enhancements to the service include providing immediate responses to customer inquiries without redirecting them to the FTA’s partners’ websites, saving customers’ time in accessing inquiry services, and offering information about the services provided by the FTA through its partners’ platforms.

Meanwhile, the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has reported a 14.41 per cent increase in tax refund transactions for tourists, totalling 4.18 million transactions in 2023, with a daily average of transactions of 11,460.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Director-General of FTA, stated to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) that the electronic system for refunding value-added tax to tourists has exceeded expectations in recent years, with a significant rise in tax refund transactions. The FTA’s data indicates that approximately 14 million electronic transactions for tax refunds to tourists have been processed since the system’s launch in November 2018 until the end of the previous year.

He noted that the daily average of electronic transactions executed for tax refunds to tourists has consistently increased over the past four years, rising from 4,130 transactions as a daily average in 2020 to about 7,390 transactions daily in 2021, and jumped significantly to about 10,020 transactions daily in 2022, and continued to rise, with the daily average of tax refund transactions for tourists executed during 2023 reaching about 11,460 transactions.

FTA DG said, “With the tourism recovery witnessed by the UAE, and the continuous development operations carried out by the Authority for the electronic system for VAT refunds to tourists; the total annual number of electronic transactions executed for tax refunds to tourists has witnessed continuous growth in recent years, rising from 1.51 million transactions in 2020 to 2.7 million transactions in 2021, with an increase of 78.54 percent. The increase continued to 3.66 million transactions in 2022, with an increase of 35.44 percent. It rose again to 4.18 million transactions in 2023, with an increase of 14.41 per cent.”

Regarding the electronic linkage of retail systems with the digital system for VAT refunds to tourists, Al Bustani clarified that this linkage constitutes a key element in the significant achievements made during the past period, noting that the digital system developed for VAT refunds to tourists, launched in 2022, is considered the latest of its kind globally.