BRATISLAVA, February 16, (WEBNOVINY) – The information system of the tax administration has collapsed, according to opposition MPs. The Finance Ministry, however, argues that the system is just not working optimally, but will be fully operational by the end of the month. The deputies will look into the situation as well reasons of the current problems on Friday morning at a deputy inquiry at one of the tax offices in Bratislava. After more than two-hour talks on Friday, members of the Parliamentary Committee for Finances and Budget have unanimously agreed that the Supreme Audit Office inspect observation of law within financial administration and they have asked head of the Cabinet Office for immediate inspection, too.
The Finance Ministry sees behind the current problems in the IT system of the tax administration the supplier of the original IT system, the company Novitech, which failed to fulfill its duties, the ministry claims. According to the Finance Ministry’s state secretary, Vladimir Tvaroska, the ministry is preparing a lawsuit against the company. Novitech’s CEO Jozef Balun said that the company will use legal means to protect itself, too. According to Zuzana Neslusilova for the tax administration, who participated in Thursday’s session of the parliamentary committee, they have to manually calculate value-added tax refunds. The tax administration is also unable to fulfill some of its duties.
On Tuesday, the SaS party pointed out to problems at the Taxes Department at the Financial Directorate of the Slovak Republic, which originated by merging tax and customs offices at the beginning of this year. According to the party, the Financial Directorate is in chaos and at the brink of a collapse as it is not paying companies VAT refunds and at the same time it is not providing necessary certificates. The Finance Ministry, however, rejected the statements saying they are part of political games aiming at abusing the current situation of a transforming, new financial administration. The directorate says the problems are connected with merging of 102 old separate IT systems into a single one as of the beginning of this year.
SITA