AMMAN -- The public will soon be able to address queries regarding the Income and Sales Tax Department to the National Call Centre (NCC), according to the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT).
The ministry is currently in the process of linking the NCC, which receives complaints and inquiries about government services, with the tax department, a source at the MoICT said on Saturday.
The NCC is directly connected with liaison officers at the country's ministries and public agencies and can be reached at 065008080 from 8:00am until 8:00pm Saturday through Thursday and from 12:00pm until 5:00pm on Fridays and holidays.
Complaints and suggestions, either in Arabic or in English, can also be sent via e-mail to www.ncc@goj.gov.jo or via SMS to 94444, according to the centre's website.
Each complaint is assigned a number, which is sent via SMS to whoever filed it so that they can follow up on it.
Once the complaint is addressed, the person who lodged it will receive an SMS informing them that the issue was resolved.
Under the system, once a public entity receives a complaint it has a maximum of 14 days to respond, specify the steps it will take to address the issue and give a time frame for its resolution.
Several citizens on Saturday differed over the necessity of such a call centre, with some saying they were unaware of it.
Roqayya Fathi, a mother of four, said she had made several successful inquiries at the NCC.
"I called the centre a few times to ask about how to complete some transactions at the Civil Status and Passports Department and the people at the centre were very helpful and guided me well," Fathi said on Saturday.
"I once called the centre to ask about Tawjihi results for relatives and they were helpful too and told me where to go to get the results," she added.
But Sami Defallah, a resident of Abu Alanda, said he had never heard of the centre.
"In winter, I call the Greater Amman Municipality regularly to complain about broken water pipelines or that the street in front of my house needs to be fixed. They answer but are very slow in responding to my complaints," said Defallah, a merchant with six children.
"Sometimes, I wanted to complain about the municipality and about their slow services and response but I did not know what to do. Having this centre [the NCC] is important. I think I will call them in the future when the municipality does not respond to my complaints," he said, adding that the centre should be promoted more so that more people use it.
© Jordan Times 2012
