[Photo: FILE]

The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service’s push towards greater digitisation has come under scrutiny, with concerns raised over a significant reduction in spending on digital systems.

The issue was raised during the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs’ review of the FRCS 2024–2025 Annual Report.

Deputy Committee Chair Premila Kumar questioned a 48.2 percent reduction in expenditure on computer maintenance, software licences and other areas linked to digital transformation.

Kumar says the reduction raises questions about whether enough funding is being provided to support FRCS’s digitisation priorities.

“So, if there is a reduction in the budget for digitisation, but on the other hand, we see that FRCS says, even the Chair’s report says, that digitisation is a main priority for FRCS. So, if you can kindly explain this sharp cut in the budget.”

She also questioned whether funding for cybersecurity, software maintenance, system reliability and other critical digital infrastructure has been affected.

In response, Fiji Revenue and Customs Service Chief Executive Udit Singh says a sharp drop in IT-related spending does not reflect a reduction in its commitment to digitisation.

Singh adds that the reduction highlighted in its annual report was mainly due to a one-off $5 million licence-related payment made in the previous financial year.

“But in terms of digitisation, it is high on our agenda, and we are looking very seriously in terms of building a data warehouse, consolidating all of our repositories into one so we can actually then have an intelligence layer and effectively enhance our digitisation and our capability to manage risk-based taxpayers.”

Singh says FRCS is also working towards developing a data warehouse that will bring different information repositories together.