Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

The Assessment of Service Quality from Users’ Point of Views:

The Case of Revenue Authority, Addis Ababa City Government

Jemal Abagissa*

Department of Public Administration and Development Management, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Research Article

Received: 25/10/2021 ABSTRACT

Accepted: 09/11/2021 In an attempt to improve service delivery in the public sector, the
Published: 16/11/2021 government of Ethiopia launched civil service program in 1996 and service
delivery policy and implementation instruments in 2001. The overall
*For correspondence: objective of the reform is to enable public institutions to provide their
Jemal Abagissa; Department of services to the public in efficient, effective, transparent and responsive
Public Administration Development; manner. Based on the objectives of the policy and parameters drawn from
Addis Ababa University; Ethiopia service delivery literature, this study aims at evaluating the satisfaction of
E-mail: [email protected] customers of the revenue administration office of Addis Ababa City
Keywords: Service quality; Customer
government.A sample of 100 customers provided their views and answers to
satisfaction
the questionnaires forwarded during the data collection period.The study
shows that service delivery at Revenue Agency can be viewed as moderate
though it falls short in some aspects. It performed average in timeliness,
process easiness, transparency, responsiveness, grievance handling and
physical environment. It performed below average in dimensions such as
consultation with customers, access to service providers, respectfulness,
courtesy and reliability. The number of customers has increased manifold
over the study period. Finally, service delivery improvement together with
new tax laws resulted in an increase of revenue collection. The total revenue
increased from 729.47 million Birr in 2001 to 2.6 billion Birr in 2006. 2.6
billion Birr is about 260 million USD in the year 2006.
 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

INTRODUCTION

There is growing managerial interest in customer satisfaction as a means of evaluating quality. High customer
satisfaction ratings are widely believed to be the best indicator of company’s future profit. Public Sector Services
may be provided in a non-competitive environment because alternative service providers often do not exist. Hence,
service recipients, unlike consumers in the private sector, may have little or no option to use a different service
provider or to withhold payment. Therefore, implementing the practice of good governance on public service
provision is an imperative option for the welfare of the society specifically for service recipients, so as to ensure
best quality of service provision and it helps as a base of attaining advanced level of customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction can be experienced in a variety of situations and connected to both goods and services. It is
a highly personal assessment that is greatly affected by customer expectations. Satisfaction also is based on the
customer’s experience of both contact with the organization and personal outcomes. Customer satisfaction is the
degree to which a customer perceives that an individual, firm or organization has effectively provided a product or
service that meets the customer’s needs in the context in which the customer is aware of and / or using the
product or service. Satisfaction is not inherent in the individual or the product but is a socially constructed response
to the relationship between a customer, the product and the product provider /maker. To the extent that a provider
/ maker can influence the various dimensions of the relationship, the provider can influence customer satisfaction.

Measuring customer satisfactions provide an insight to the customer pre and post purchase behavior. Without this
approach understanding, improving and developing better customer services could not be possible. Thus, business
consultants, corporations and others have worked to identify the characteristics of organizations that consistently
please their customers, to develop tools for monitoring customer satisfaction, and to build continuous, quality
improvement systems that respond to consumer feedback. Since the implementation of BPR in Ethiopian public
organizations a decade ago, the topic of customer satisfaction has been on the agenda and in recent years.

In Ethiopia, deficiencies in human resources and institutional capacity as well as deficiencies in working system
and process were among the causes constraining administrative efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector
There were numerous forms of administrative barriers, including excessive documentation requirements,
inadequate information on rules and regulations, lengthy registration or ratification periods, redundant and complex
formalities, complicated processes requiring multi-level or multi-agency approval and unsupportive attitudes from
public employees. These have typically been reflected in inefficient service delivery characterized by poor working
environment and processes, inappropriate conception of the roles and responsibilities of civil service. Addressing
these deficiencies has thus been a concern of the incumbent government since mid 1990s.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To this effect, the government adopted the Civil Service Reform Program in 1996 with a focus on five major
streams of work: Top Management Systems; Human resource management; Service Delivery; Expenditure
Management and Ethics. Service delivery reform sub-program is of particular interest in this study. As part of the
CSRP subcomponent, service delivery mechanism is designed by service giving agencies (institutions).The overall
objective of service delivery sub-program is to improve the scale, efficiency, and responsiveness of public service
delivery at the federal, regional and local level, empower citizens to participate more effectively and promote good
governance and accountability.

Within the national reform context, the service delivery mechanism has been designed and implemented at the
municipal level by service giving institutions of Addis Ababa City Administration since 2003. The City administration,
like all other government institutions, was affected by bureaucratic bottlenecks, inefficiency, ineffectiveness
characterized by slow process and poor quality service. The ailments afflicting Addis Ababa’s civil services include:
lack of transparency in service providing offices, sluggish service provision, poor customer care, absence of
grievance handling channels, poor quality of services, poor ethical behaviour and sluggish socio-economic
development. Thus, the rationales of the city’s reform measures were reported.

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 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

 remove the basic weaknesses engrained in the existing civil service inherited from the past regime
 build the capacity of the civil service so that it will execute the policies and programs of the city
government successfully
 enhance the civil service to provide efficient and fair services to the public
 enhance accountability and transparency in the civil service
 build the civil service that is ethically sound and free of corruption.

Addis Ababa is also center of economic, social and political activities of the country. From the total labor force
employed in urban sectors of the country, 24.3% in manufacturing, 47.8% in electricity and water, 40% in
construction, 35% in transport and communication, 62% in financial intermediary, 64.4% in real estate sector are
concentrated in Addis. As we see the spatial distribution of investment activities in the Country, Addis Ababa seems
to continue dominant center of economic activities. For instance, of the total private investment projects approved
in the country during the years from 1992–98, 52% were planned to be implemented in Addis Ababa. This trend
proves that the City still attracts the lion’s share of investment capital in the country and that its leading role in the
national economy will be continuing. Addis Ababa is the third populous city in Eastern Africa, next to Khartoum and
Nairobi.

The objectives of the study

The main objective of this study is to explore how much the customers are satisfied with the service delivery of the
revenue Authority of Addis Ababa City Administration and the study seeks answer to the following basic questions:

 How do the end users view the services rendered in terms of quality and speed?
 What major problems/challenges are encountered in the course of the implementation

The Research methodology

Since this study is aimed at assessing the satisfaction of residents with the revenue authority in light of the
achievements recorded, extent of clients’ satisfaction and challenges thereof, it is assumed that studying the
situation from service receivers’ point of view is appropriate. The study is both qualitative and quantitative method
that employs descriptive survey. According to Gay and Airasian (2000:11), descriptive or survey research involves
collecting data in order to answer about the status of a subject or topic of study. In addition, quantitative descriptive
studies are carried out to obtain information about preferences, attitudes, practices, concerns or interests of a
group of people. Thus, the researcher uses qualitative and quantitative approaches in this study due to the nature
of the topic. The use of qualitative data gathering method is selected because it is more open to include many
variables to see the topic from different dimensions. It also allows the use of different data collection methods.
Quantitative descriptive approaches are also be used for some aspects of the study. A combination of both
approaches are used because in reality, any effort to quantify the effects of service process without careful
attention to the other factors that affect outputs could create statistical difficulties.

Sources of Data
Data searches from the service users were conducted concerning their opinion on the level and satisfaction of
services rendered by the office. As the population of the customer is difficult to define, the researcher selected 100
samples based on convenience and manageability. There are ten sub-cities in Addis Ababa. From these, two sub-
cities (Arada and Yeka) are randomly selected using random sampling. This makes up 20 % of the total sub-cities

Data collection instruments

Questionnaires having five response categories are prepared using Likert scale survey method to collect data from
customer respondents. The five scales indicate various intensities of judgement on a given issue. The scales range
from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ with ‘agree’, ‘neutral’ and ‘disagree’ in between. The questions are
prepared based on the objectives of the study and on the assumptions formulated. Data were analyzed by
summing-up and converting into percent for responses under each scale and presented in table format. That is, the
total counts for each rating was calculated for questions using Likert Scale.

Review of related Literature

This section presents a review of the existing literature about service quality and its measurements. It examines
unique characteristics of services, its dimensions and measurement approaches. Two prominent service quality
approaches are also presented and compared.

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 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

Service quality measurements

In the literature two perspectives of service quality measurement have been identified - internal and external
perspectives. The internal perspective is defined as zero defect-doing it right the first time, or conformance to
requirements. The external perspective sees service quality in terms of customer perception, customer expectation,
customer satisfaction, customer attitude and customer delight. The external perspective has become important
because of increasing customer awareness, changing consumer tastes and growing consumer expectations and it
is the concern of this study. Many different methods exist to measure, control and improve quality in various fields.
Among the different definitions of service quality that measure the external perspective, the one given by PZB
seems particularly useful. They (PZB) define service quality as the degree and direction of discrepancy between
consumers’ perceptions and expectations in terms of different but relatively important dimensions of service
quality, which can affect their future behavior.

According to them, the position of a customers’ perception of service quality on the continuum depends on the
nature of the discrepancy between the expected service and service perceived by the client). Service quality is thus
operationalized as performance (P)–minus expectation (E). Thus by this perspective, the way to maximize quality is
to maximize the difference between these measures, P and E. in order words it means exceeding the customers’
expectations. The original conceptualization of service quality was a framework developed by Parasuraman et al.
Their works led to the development of a 22-item scale, the SERVQUAL instrument which has been used extensively
by most researchers. The SERVQUAL instrument was originally measured on ten (10) aspects or dimensions of
service quality: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security,
understanding, and tangibles as a means of measuring the gap between customer expectation and experience.
The original construct was found to be overly complex, subjective and statistically unreliable, and as a result it was
simplified and modified to the five dimensional model which is measured on five (5) aspects, namely - reliability,
assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness. Service quality is therefore a function of pre -purchase
customers’ expectations, perceived process quality and perceived output quality, conceptualized service quality as
the gap between customers‟ expectation and their perception of the service experience. A lot of studies have been
undertaken using the SERVQUAL because of its generic service applicability. It has been used in hospitals; hotels;
travel and tourism a telecommunications company, two insurance companies and two banks.

Dimensions of Service Quality

The SERVQUAL model has been the most important method used to measure consumers’ perceptions of service
quality. The SERVQUAL scale consists of five dimensions, namely, including tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy and 22 items.

Tangibles: The enterprises’ infrastructure, the availability of inter-modal transport, the quality of information
systems and the preparedness of the port management. Iwaarden defined tangibility as physical facilities,
equipment and appearance of employees and management team. Further, it is also defined as the ease in visibility
of resources necessary for providing the service to customers, well groomed employees and ease in accessing
written materials like pamphlets, brochures, folders, information books etc. will have a favorable consequence on
the level of customer satisfaction. Modern looking or sophisticated equipment and visually appealing or attractive
ambience are viewed as the positive impacts of tangibility on customer satisfaction in banking sector.

Reliability: refers efficiency and the speed of port services. This includes ‘reliability of port operation’ and
‘landside accessibility’. ‘reliability of port security’ and ‘port reputation. Reliability is defined as the ability to perform
the required service to customers dependably and accurately as promised to deliver. Dealing whatever the
problems in services encountered by customers, performing the required services right from the first time, services
being rendered at the promised time and maintaining error-free record are the paradigm of reliability in terms of
service quality which will strongly influence the level of customer satisfaction. In banking services provided to the
customer, accuracy in completing orders, maintaining precise record and quote, accuracy in billing, maintaining
promised services are the basic views of reliability which is considered as the most important factor in convincing
customers to retain in banking services.

Responsiveness: can relate to ability to meet the users’ needs quickly.

Defined responsiveness as the interests shown in providing prompt service to customers when required. Further, it
is researched that willingness or readiness of employees to provide the required customer service without any
inconvenience at any time will strongly influence the level of customer satisfaction. Customers get satisfied when
banks provide individual attention and the employees are paying attention to problems experienced by customers
regarding safety in transaction

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 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

Assurance:
Assurance is defined as the knowledge and good manners or courtesy of employees. Further, it is also defined as
the ability of employees with the help of the knowledge possessed to inspire trust and confidence will strongly strike
the level of customer satisfaction

Empathy: This dimension is used to measure the level of individual attention in which is given to customers. For
example the ability of the port to inform its clients promptly of any problems with their transportation. Empathy is
defined as the ability to take care of customer's attention individually in providing service to customers. Further, it is
researched that understanding customer expectations better than competitors in providing the required customer
service at any time without any inconvenience will strongly influence the level of customer satisfaction. Convenient
working hours, individualized attention, better understanding of customer's specific needs, enhanced
communication between management and customers will have a positive outcome on customer satisfaction. There
are also 22 explaining factors or attributes associated with these service quality dimensions. Thus, according to the
SERVQUAL Model, quality of transport and logistics services is a construct comprising five dimensions with 22
associated explaining factors. For the purpose of this study, we further adapt the above SERVQUAL model to make
it suitable for the ESLSE, which provides shipping, logistics and dry port services. These 22 factors are presented in.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1. SERVQUAL Dimensions Definitions and Explaining Factors.

Dimension Definition Indicators

(1) employees who instill confidence in customers, (2)
making customers feel safe in their transactions, including secure
delivery of items (3)
The ability to convey trust employees who are
Assurance (4) employees who have the knowledge to answer customer
and confidence.
questionsconsistently courteous, and

(1) provision of services as promised,

The ability of employees (2) dependability in handling customer’s service problems,
to perform the promised (3) performing services right the first time,
Reliability (4) providing services at the
service timely and
accurately. (5) Maintaining error-free records.promised time, and

(1) keeping customers informed about when services will be

performed,
(2) prompt service to customers, (e.g., convenient pickup and
The willingness of the delivery time),
employees to assist (3) willingness to help customers, and 4) readiness to respond to
Responsiveness
clients and provide customers’ requests, including flexibility in meeting special handling
prompt service. requirements

(1) modern equipment, transportation facilities and warehouse

availabilities, use of information technologies, port management,
(2) visual appearance of facilities and
The physical appearance (3) employees with regard to neatness and professionalism, and
of the public companies,
Tangibles equipment for transportation, warehousing and communication, (4)
inclusive of the available visually appealing materials associated with the service of the ESLSE
facilities.

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 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

(1) giving customers individual attention,

The caring, individualized (2) employees who deal with customers in caring fashion,
attention that the (3) having the best customers interest at heart,
Empathy employee of the public (4) employees who understand the needs of their customers, and,
companies staff provides (5) convenient business hours.
to clients.

Since the development of the SERVQUAL, it has received its share of criticism. The major criticisms of the
instrument involve the length of the questionnaire, the validity of the five service quality dimension, and the
predictive power of the instrument in regard to subsequent consumer purchase.
Many authors have suggested that the dimension utilized by SERVQUAL lack generality Mc, that administering
expectation items are unnecessary. Cronin and Taylor denied the framework of SERVQUAL and proposed a new
service quality measuring model “SERVPERF” which measured only the performance excluding expectations. They
claimed their model SERVPERF performed better than any other measure of service quality.

Servperf

An alternative instrument to measure service quality was introduced by one of the SERVQUAL's critics - Cronin and
Taylor. Instead of SERVQUAL, Cronin and Taylor introduced the performance-based measure of service quality,
SERVPERF. SERVPERF is composed of the 22 perception items defined in SERVQUAL scale, and excludes any
consideration of expectations. In other words, SERVPERF differs from SERVQUAL in that SERVPERF does not assess
gap scores because the expectations portion of the pairings is not included. The research of Cronin and Taylor
suggested that although expectations can have unique effect on consumers' perception of service quality, the
performance minus expectations is an inappropriate basis for use in the measurement of service quality. Moreover,
there were many emerging literature supported the performance-based paradigm over the disconfirmation-based
SERVQUAL paradigm. Churchill and Surprenant, all supported for the superiority of simple performance-based
measures of service quality over gap measures of SERVQUAL. In this study, the researcher uses SERVPERF in
assessing customer satisfaction in Addis Ababa city administration Revenue Agency. It does not include
expectations. The researcher preferred SERVPERF as it provides a benchmark based on customer opinions on their
experience using key service quality attributes.

Customers’ views on Service Quality Dimensions

An effective and efficient program of taxpayer service activities is a critical objective of all revenue bodies. The
general complexity of tax laws coupled with the weak institutional capacity mean that all revenue bodies must rely
substantially on taxpayers’ voluntary compliance to achieve the outcomes expected of them. It is axiomatic that to
achieve high levels of voluntary compliance, taxpayers and their representatives must have a good standard of
services to help them determine their obligations under the laws and to complete the steps required to acquit those
obligations.

Table 2: Service time (process) as evaluated by users.

Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree Disagree
agree comment disagree
Time/process
It takes short time to
get the service 50 20 4 30 16

There are a number of

contacts to get a 13 19 5 45 18
service
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 Research & Reviews: Journal of Social Sciences

Some of the contacts

are not necessary 25 30 2 25 18

These dimensions are rated 50% (strongly agree & agree added), 32% and 55 % respectively.
Timeliness refers to providing the service in a timely manner; meeting the time frame that was promised. According
to this rating, the speed with which the services are provided does not meet the expectations of the customers.
Customers become most annoyed and frustrated when they are forced to wait for long period for service. This is
considered as sign of poor service. The respondents have also indicated that some of the contacts are not
necessary.

Table 3: Transparency.

Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree Disagree
agree comment disagree

Necessary and
sufficient
46 11 31 12
information is given
in advance
The process of
service delivery is
53 15 5 8 19
open and
transparent

The two aspects of transparency are rated 57% and 68 % respectively.

Availability of information and transparency is very important in order to enhance public awareness and reduce the
risk of corruption. This is especially true when tax and revenue matters are involved. Transparency can be improved
by providing easy access to information on the workings of public programs intended for public benefit. Openness
and transparency are the hallmarks of a democratic government and are fundamental to the public service
transformation process. In terms of public service delivery, government’s importance lies in the need to build
confidence and trust between the public sector and the public.

Table 4: Reliability
Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree Disagree
agree comment disagree
The information
given is consistent 20 34 14 18 14

The service
providers provide 18 42 4 30 6
what is promised
The service
providers adhere to 25 48 6 18 3
rules and standards

The three aspects of reliability are rated as 54%, 60% and 73% respectively.
Citizens should be given full, accurate and reliable information about the public services they are entitled to
receive. In service, consistency implies achieving sameness, uniformity and fairness in the delivery or execution of
all the service attributes, regardless of time, place, occasion, and service provider. Improving performance in
organizations is a function not only of systems and structures, but also of people and values.

Table 5: Respectfulness and courtesy

Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree disagree
agree comment disagree

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The service
providers are
respectful 13 15 8 58 6
The service
providers are
courteous 12 11 10 55 12

Only 27% and 23% of the respondents respectively agree that the frontline staff is respectful and courteous to their
customers. The office performed very low in one of the very important service quality dimensions that are
respectfulness and courtesy. Revenue office customers deserve high level treatment because they not only citizens
but also tax payers on which the city government relies for its financial needs.

Table 6. Physical environment

Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree disagree
agree comment disagree
The location
of the office
66 30 3 1
is convenient
for transport
The waiting
room is 38 60 2
comfortable
The signs are
well written,
17 10 2 39 32
posted and
visible
there is
adequate 9 4 43 21 23
parking place

96% of the respondents agree that the location of the offices is convenient for transport and 98% agree that
waiting rooms are convenient and only 27% and 13% of the respondents agree that signs are well written, posted
and visible and that there is adequate parking respectively

Table 7. Responsiveness and grievance handling

Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree disagree
agree comment disagree

The service providers

give timely response to 13 39 3 24 21
expressed concerns
The service providers
respond to questions 11 18 6 42 23
when asked for clarity
grievances are handled 9 4 6 34 47
properly and timely

Aspects of responsiveness are rated as 52%, 29%, 82% and 13 % respectively.

Taxpayers must have the opportunity to appeal if they feel unjustly treated by the tax administration. As it
fundamentally increases the taxpayers’ ‘trust in the fairness of the revenue administration, the quality of the
appeals process serves as the main indicator for assessing taxpayer rights. If the promised standard of service is
not delivered, citizens should be offered an apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy; and
when complaints are made, citizens should receive a sympathetic positive response. It can be argued that
customers who had complaints that were resolved were more satisfied than customers who did not have problems
in the first place. Customers who get their problems satisfactorily and quickly solved tell their friends and neighbors
and enhance positive images.

Table 8: Consultation with customers

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Strongly No Strongly
Issues Agree Disagree
agree comment disagree

I was asked by the

office/employee to
comment on the goodness 7 5 5 31 52
or badness of the services
and on what is to be
done

Only 12% of the respondents stated that customers are consulted before the new program/ procedure is
implemented. Citizens should be consulted about the level and quality of the public services they receive and,
wherever possible, should be given a choice about the services they are offered. Viewed in this regard, the policy
document of service delivery in Ethiopia appreciates citizens’ empowerment and consultation. It highlights the
importance of citizen engagement as they are the ultimate consumers of public services and thus they are the
best judges of service delivery quality. However, such policy intentions were not yet realized in practice. First
customer empowerment begins with the orientation about the intention of the reform and its outcomes. This
should take place before the start of reform implementation. The 2nd type of citizen engagement is to involve
them during the implementation through opinion survey or checklist data collection. There is scanty evidence in
this respect except the attempts made by city’s capacity building bureau which collected the opinion of very few
individuals. The 3rd type citizen engagement is to allow them to present their grievances when they are aggrieved
by the process and by the frontline staffs.

CONCLUSION

Service standards (Speeds in service provision)

The assumption is that process improvement will directly lead to better outputs. Thus, improved process is seen
as a step towards achieving improved outputs. It is also the case that process improvements may have a value of
its own in a democratic state where how things are done may be as important as what operational results are
Establishing explicit standards and measures of performance are among the components of current public
management reform under NPM movements. Service standards include the kind of services, the preconditions
expected from the customers, the fees for each service, the amount of time required to get the service and the
addresses of the service centers. Establishment of clear service standards is one of the preconditions to satisfy
customers through efficient services.

In the private sector improved quality pays off by itself. But this is less clear in the public sector. Spending on
quality improvement is unlikely to increase either the volume or the income of the organization. This diminishes
the incentives for quality improvement in the public sector. Thus, one of the reasons for the recent shift to the
service standard setting and guidelines development is a recognition with in public sector that normal commercial
Reasons for improving service often does not apply and that additional controls are therefore necessary.
Improving standards is cheaper than increasing the budget. Thus, formulating service standards and
implementing them has become part of reassuring professionalism in the public services.The following table
shows the minimum standards set by the Revenue Agency of the Addis Ababa city Administration

Table 9: Revenue Administration Authority, service standards, 2006

Practice Before the Reform Proposed new Standard New Standard in Practice
Types of
No.
Services Requirem Proce Requirem Proce Requirem Proce
Time Time Time
ent ss ent ss ent ss
2 days
Registrati 3 12
&15
1 on of new 11 28 mont 6 4 minut 4 4
minut
taxpayers hs es
es
Renewal 15 13 15
2 6 29 5 5 5 5
of days minut minut

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business es es
licenses
Tax
assessme
-------- --------
3 nt (for ------------- 3 6 960 3 3 480
-- -
category
C)
Business
closure,
plate
number
change of 3
business mont 30
4 vehicles, 6 22 hs to 5 7 1 day 5 7 minut
business 1 es
address year
change,
business
house
change,
VAT
5 registrati ----- ---- ---- 2 3 2 days 2 2 days
on
Support
letter for 15
15
6 bid ----- ---- ---- 2 3 2 minut
minutes
participan es
ts
Support
letter
attesting
15
debt-free 15
7 ----- ---- ---- 2 3 2 minut
for minutes
es
employm
ent
seekers

Source: City’s Capacity Building Bureau, 2016.

In the two sub-cities selected in this study, only tax related services were displayed on the notice boards for
customers to know them. This shows that despites the preparation of the service standards, its implementation in
these offices is insignificant. Most of the services are provided out of the allotted time in the service standard. For
instance, the report of the city’s capacity building presented a report that contradicts with what is given in the
standard. According to this reportit takes the following time to get the services specified.

 Assessment of presumptive tax of the newly registered taxpayers takes 60 days

 Appeal case takes 35 days
 Budget amount determination of a given year takes 2 years

The major problem comes from category C tax payers. As this group does not keep book of accounts, inspectors
used to assess the tax amount on their personal judgment. Though single inspector has been replaced by a
committee after 2004, the assessment is still subjective. Because of this arbitrary tax levy, some tax-payers
complain that they are required to pay unrealistic amount and hence they lodge complaints to the office. Thus
employees attend to these complaints wasting their time instead of giving regular services. The official in the
revenue authority also indicated other challenges that encountered the office. These include:
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 Absence of established format to monitor the progress

 Irregular meeting of daily income tax valuation committee
 Absence of property withholding and selling in case of default
 Low commitment in contracted out tax collection
 Slow ICT network
 Low practice in using cash register to improve VAT collection.

Capacity problems in human, physical and financial resources have also been reported because of which a
required amount of tax has not been yet collected.

Conclusive remarks on the Service Delivery

Customers’ evaluation shows an average rating (satisfaction) regarding speed, processes and contacts. The
respondents also judged that there is moderate improvement in overall quality. Quality dimensions such as
transparency, reliability, competence and responsiveness are all given average ratings. Billing easiness is the only
highest rated dimension in this sector. On the other hand, the office has performed low(below average) in service
delivery dimensions such as consultation with customers, accessing service providers, facilities and physical
environment, accuracy, respectfulness, courtesy and fairness. The office does not formally consult users about its
services. It does not undertake customer surveys or organize discussion forums for clients. It also offers no formal
mechanism for receiving and responding to complaints. Feedback thus limited to situations in which dissatisfied
individuals directly express their views to the front line staff or report to the management. Taxation is a prime
example of a mandatory service provided by a monopolistic public body with statutory authority to potentially
involuntary clients. In such a situation, the public can reasonably expect certain standards of service, including
good information, support and guidance, together with clear avenues for complaint and redress, should they be
felt to be necessary. As citizens, the general public also has responsibilities to both provide, through the political
process, and honour, through their own behavior, a fair taxation system.

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3. Cronin j j. et al. “Measuring service quality: A Reexamination and extension”. 1992;56:55-70.
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5. Sachdev S B. “Relating Importance of Service Quality Dimensions: A multi sectoral study. Journal of
Services Research. 2004;4:1-25.

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