The citizen's card - a smart solution to streamline local public services in Romanian municipalities
About this good practice
The excessive bureaucratization of local public administration combined with an inefficient use of human resources & a certain level of difficulty for citizens to fulfill their fiscal duties, led Ciugud to become, ever since 2010, one of the first communes in Romania to implement an e-payment system for the citizens' debts.
The citizen's card - a non-banking card offered to every citizen in Ciugud – displays an unique bar code which can be scanned and allows citizens access to tax information & payment of local taxes without the need to physically go to the town hall. In its absence, the taxpayer can access this info based on his/her personal code number. The card is also offered to private entities, all related facilities being accessible through their fiscal identification number.
Thus, since 2019, citizens have the possibility to pay local taxes at the "self pay" stations installed in the commune’s villages. These stations are strategically located in local shops, as they are open from morning 'til evening and citizens can receive expert help from the sellers who have been especially trained.
Presently, all Ciugud’s inhabitants exclusively use this card to access tax information.
Beneficiaries: citizens & private organizations; local public administration.
Benefits:
- easier tracking of collections through IT systems, with minimal recording errors
- reallocation of tasks & a reduction in the burden per employee after the process’s digitization
- increased collection rates
Resources needed
The equipment, consumables and software directly related to this initiative costed around 20.000 EUR.
All the city hall's personnel was involved in the card's implementation (14 people), under the mayor's supervision, with the activity being ran simultaneously to the daily activities.
Evidence of success
So far, this initiative has proved to be a real success because, in the municipality of Ciugud, 100% of the payments of local taxes and fees are presently made exclusively electronically, taxpayers having the citizen's card at their disposal to fulfill these obligations. In support of the statement presented above, we mention that, in 2022, the cashier's office was completely abolished due to the results and benefits brought by the implementation of this practice.
Potential for learning or transfer
Known as the first digital identity project in Romania, the citizen's card streamlines the process of collecting local taxes. By using this card, citizens can fulfill their tax obligations in a very short time (maximum 2 minutes), through four smart payment solutions: electronic payment stations located in the villages of Ciugud commune (which allow both card and cash payment), the dedicated mobile payment application, the digital services platform of the City Hall (Global Pay) and the national platform ghișeul.ro.
The use of the citizen's card has enabled the collection of local taxes and fees entirely electronically, minimizing the city hall's collection efforts, the use of human resources assigned to this task and errors in recording payments.
Moreover, all these have increased the collection rates, thus ensuring more resources at the disposal of the local government which can be reinvested to further support Ciugud’s development.