Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) has decided to open two more points of service – at Remera and Nyabugogo – to facilitate the many transport clients pay their taxes on time. This is well, because it shows that the tax body has its pulse on issues affecting its doing better business. By providing more service points, it is redressing an issue that has been making tax-payment tedious, as payers have to trek to Kimihurura and the city centre, where they queue up for long hours. It is to be hoped that these points will not only serve temporarily to receive just electronic permit payments. What begs recognition by service providers is that there should be a high level of flexibility in rendering service. The buck is on banks now to find means of cutting down on the ever-increasing queues by, for example, using mobile bank vans to alleviate the long waits wherever there is a branch that is overwhelmed with customers in need of service. The bad egg in service provision is still held by the hospitality industry. Sluggish and seemingly unwilling hostesses (waiters and waitresses) apart, there is no reason why, in a country moving in the fast lane, a hungry customer should place an order for a meal that will take up to one hour to get done. Fast foods should be essentially that – fast. This hangover from the past should be addressed quickly by all hoteliers and restaurateurs. Placing such an order should be held as a privilege, a practice that should be left to the few diners who have the time and special palates. Let us have a meal immediately we order for one. We should well remember that it is such flexibility of thinking that has earned the Private Sector Federation high praise for thinking policies that have advanced Rwanda’s cause, as in the most recent higher scores in the Doing Business World Bank survey. Taxes are high – cut them. It takes long to register a business – cut the bureaucracy. Too many roadblocks are hindering business and travel – clear the roads. That is the kind of positive flexibility we want to see. Ends
