BRATISLAVA, June 7, (WEBNOVINY) — The use of revenue stamps is slowly losing its original meaning and the Ministry of Finance would like to phase them out. The ministry would like to preserve the possibility of paying administrative fees with revenue stamps until the end of 2012, in case the payer has purchased them in advance. Then, revenue stamps used to pay administrative fees would be abolished: administrative fees could be paid with postal money orders, by bank transfer, or in cash. The ministry would like to make accepting supplementary payments in cash obligatory for all public administration authorities.
The Finance Ministry would also like to introduce payments with credit or debit cards in order to make payments less time-consuming. “At the same time, the possibility of paying [administrative] fees with a text message (SMS) may be introduced, if the respective institutions create technical conditions for this payment method,” states the ministry in its draft bill on abolishing revenue stamps, which was submitted for interdepartmental review. The Finance Ministry would also like to make it possible to sell unused stamps back to the Slovak Post.
The ministry prepared abolishing revenue stamps to pay administrative fees in line with the Cabinet’s program document. According to the department, revenue stamps are losing their original meaning of easy payment, good accessibility and low production cost. “As time passes, production costs are increasing, mostly thanks to the application of security features to protect the stamps from forgery. Problems with availability of revenue stamps in the respective [administrative] organs are arising. Also, there are new and more flexible ways to pay fees by electronic means,” concluded the ministry.
SITA
