I submitted my income tax form via the internet sometime in March of this year. IRD processed the returns on the 31 March 2008 and by 10 April 2008, I received my tax credit in the form of a cheque totalling more than RM6,000.
Honestly, I am impressed with the speed of service. My previous experience with IRD when applying to get the tax credit refund has been short of superhuman effort on my part. The forms that I need to fill in plus endorsed by my employers were substantial. Total time cycle then was approximately one year!
The current 10 day total time cycle is miraculous. However, this is an important lesson that everyone must understand and appreciate. Every process can be tweaked for efficiency. In IRD's case, they finally realised that the requirement for employers to re-confirm the payment of tax of the payees does not provide any additional security advantages to IRD in protecting itself against fraudulent claims. In fact, just taking off this part of the original process saves time in terms of:
(a) Eliminating the time for the interview process;
(b) Eliminating the time needed to get the documentary proof from employers; and
(c) Eliminating the time for the submission process.
I hope other government agencies would start to emulate IRD in improving efficiency. If they follow this golden rule of cost and benefit analysis, we, as a nation, can progress much further.
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