THE Municipality of La Trinidad may soon implement cashless transactions in all offices and departments.
Authored by Councilor Roderick Awingan, the proposed ordinance aims in institutionalizing the use of access devices for payment of fees, charges, taxes, and other revenues due to the municipality through the electronic payment collection system (EPCS).
Awingan, in filing the resolution is seeing the need for technological advancement particularly in business transactions involving cash seen as necessity and easy access for the locals.
“We are a first class municipality, therefore we should move to provide the first class services to our people,” Awingan said in re-filing the measure which was shelved during the previous administration.
Awingan said the improvements will be applied in relation to the call of the national government for faster government transactions.
Aside from a speedy transaction, the measure also aims to prevent or lessen bribery among employees in various offices.
“Apart from streamlining the process for the general public, this EPCS is also one of the better ways for us to prepare in our application to formally become a city,” Awingan said.
“In some ways, we are looking to jumpstart the improvement of our system, slowly but not abrupt,” he added.
Meanwhile, councilor Henry Kipas is suggesting the town should start improving technology prior to the approval of the proposed law.
“The LGU should start upgrading its machines first before this cashless transaction will be applied,” said Kipas adding the council needs to study whether the annual allocation for IT budget of the municipality will be sufficient to cover the proposal.