2000-01 Annual Report, Inland Revenue Department
(Text Only)


Information Technology


Information Systems Strategy Plan | Office Automation | Submission of Employer's Return | Application System for Business Registration


Information Systems Strategy Plan

Steady progress was made towards the implementation of the Department's second Information Systems Strategy (ISS) plan, which consists of 12 projects. During the review period, development work for the following 6 projects were in active progress :-

1. System Infrastructure Enhancement Project, to enhance the computer system's infrastructure components in order to cope with the new business initiatives and commitments;

2. Data Management Enhancement Project, to enhance the management of the data collected by the Department;

3. Assess First Audit Later System Project, to automate return screening and assessment processes, improve the effectiveness of field audits and promote voluntary tax compliance;

4. Interactive Taxpayer Enquiry Service Project, to provide automated round-the-clock telephone enquiry service in respect of personal tax information;

5. Electronic Lodgement Service Project, to provide for telefiling of tax returns; and

6. Business Registration Processing, to provide electronic access to certain business registration services.

Feasibility study for the Document Management System Phase I Project, which aims to convert paper documents into digitised images and provide on-line and concurrent access to all documents in electronic form, was completed in March 2001. Another ISS project, namely Application System Enhancement, was fully implemented in October 2000.


Office Automation

Under the System Infrastructure Enhancement Project, the enhancement of the Department's workstation network was completed in early 2001. The upgraded network has greatly improved the efficiency of the Department's computer operations. The total number of workstations rose to about 2,000 as at 31 March 2001. During the year, on-line enquiries and updating transactions totalled 27.6 million and 6.0 million respectively, while 16.2 million transactions were processed in the batch mode.


Submission of Employer's Return

Employers are able to use electronic means (magnetic tapes or disks) to furnish returns containing details of their employees' emoluments. During the year, some 29,000 employers furnished returns in this way in respect of some 1,560,000 employees. This represented an increase of more than 10% over the previous year. Of the total, some 23,000 employers used software developed by the Department to furnish returns in respect of some 730,000 employees.


Application System for Business Registration

Development work to upgrade the imaging and document management system for Business Registration applications was completed in August 2000. With the implementation of the upgraded system, the Department was able to shorten the response time for issuing extracts of business registration information from 4 working days to 2 working days.


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(Last updated/reviewed : February 18, 2002)