As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the quality and speed of services and enhance customer satisfaction, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) launched the updated version of the e-refund system for service fees and transactions for federal entities. The updated version provides new features that facilitate and expedite the procedures of refunding fees for all federal entities.
His Excellency Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Under Secretary of Resources and Budget Sector at the Ministry of Finance, noted that launching the updated version of the system comes within the ministry’s endeavours to provide comprehensive and integrated financial services that satisfy customers. This promotes the UAE’s leading financial system at regional and international levels, and reiterates the country’s standing on global competitiveness indices.
His Excellency Al Yateem said: “Over the past years, the Ministry of Finance has taken several proactive steps to keep up with the digital revolution and adopted artificial intelligence to improve the services provided to customers in the private and government sectors. This is by adopting smart services and applications, and in line with the objectives of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, and the UAE Centennial 2071.”
His Excellency Al Yateem added: “These steps have proven their effectiveness under the exceptional circumstances that the world is witnessing today, which required most companies and institutions to work remotely and provide all services digitally. The Ministry of Finance excelled in providing all its services with high efficiency to all its customers, including individuals, companies, and government entities through its smart application and website – without having to leave their homes or offices, to ensure their health and safety.”
The updated version of the e-refund system allows customers to login using a secured unified code from the ministry’s website. This allows customers to log in to the service using MoF’s website or via the digital ID (UAE PASS). The new system also provides the ’dispute management‘ feature that enables customers to review the request’s status according to the request number upon its completion. It also provides the automatic text reading feature for people of determination, in line with the quality standards of smart government services. Once the receipt number is entered, the system can automatically identify the entity and the details of the amount to be refunded without needing the customer to input the receipt details.
Customers of the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship and various federal ministries can now request a refund of transaction fees that have been paid by the e-Dirham card or other accepted cards through the e-refund system. Refunds to customers will be available later via the smart phone application.
The number of users on the e-refund system reached 428 in 2018, and 2,962 in 2019. In 2020, during the COVID period, it reached 5,604, which showcases the high usage of the system due to the ease of electronic procedures for refunding revenues due to customers.