Understanding Lebanon’s first online tax payment gateway

In September the Ministry of Finance, Credit Libanais, Fransabank and online payment gateway NetCommerce launched Lebanon’s first online taxation gateway, allowing credit card holders to pay their taxes online. Executive sat down with Credit Libanais’ assistant general manager, Alain Hakim, to discuss the achievements and limitations of the new platform, and what type of road it paves for electronic government. Can this platform be considered as a step towards electronic government? This is the opening of a new era in Lebanon of electronic government through the payment of everything — tickets, taxes, whatever. For us to speak about electronic banking, electronic government, in 2013 with all that’s happening, is an achievement. It’s an achievement for the government, and for the banking sector. It’s a breakthrough because of the relationship between the public sector and the private sector, represented by the Ministry of Finance, and by two of the major banks