Praise to the 'Sinner' Class

In days of old, tax collectors rank on equal footing as doctors and grave diggers. They were considered as  the ' sinful class' for the jobs they do. Today,except for the grave-diggers,the doctors have become a most favoured worker category and now tax collectors are even exalted and paid bonuses.

This latest accolade to Malaysian tax collectors is sufficient testimony.

" The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has taken home a RM1mil incentive for winning the Prime Minister’s Innovation Award.

The reward, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, could be used in any way deemed meaningful by the board – including for training purposes or to be given out as bonus.

Najib hoped the award would be a strong encouragement for the department – all the way from the head of department to the lowest level of staff – to want to perform even better.

The Prime Minister presented the award at a ceremony yesterday.

IRB chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said the department had always been negatively perceived by the public, but this would not dampen its determination to keep improving.

“Many people have the common perception that paying taxes is burdening. Our key to innovation is to make tax payment easy and we have done it successfully,” she said after receiving the award from Najib.

Earlier in his speech, Najib said Malaysia had no choice but to be willing to embrace change in this globalised era. The public sector must be able to think out of the box and be creative to bring about development.

“We need to engage new methodology and approach because other countries which were not our competitors before have changed and are competing against us,” he said.

He added that the Government sector had taken a big leap when it introduced the National Key Result Areas and Key Performance Index to ensure that the country was not lagging behind when others were moving forward.

“There must be innovation in the government administration to ensure that its outcome will please and satisfy the rakyat,” he said."

To my mind, the IRB has definitely improved particularly in electronic submissions and tax refunds.

Syabas, IRB!