Friday 31 January 2014

The Kingdom's electronic payment system, SADAD, has brought about a host of changes in accessing various government services. Citizens and expatriates are hailing the system, which has played a significant role in helping them access government services and reducing the time and effort needed to get their bills paid. Now, almost all payments are carried out through solely through this system. Since its launch in 2004, the Ministry of Finance's SADAD Enrollment Project has been expanded and is now handling a huge portion of government e-payments, significantly facilitating hassle-free access to services for expatriates and residents.

It is also cutting the losses previously experienced by the government under its manual, cash-based system for paying fees and transaction charges. The SADAD system has also significantly reduced the time taken by billers to collect money from banks from two months to a single day. "I used to stand in long queues at the bank. After finally getting to pay my fees, I would have to take my bank receipt to the traffic police office the next day to register my vehicle or renew my driver's license. Now, the entire process takes just a matter of minutes," said Hami Al-Sulaimi, a representative of a leading transport company who is tasked with settling traffic police-related matters.

Saleem Bhut, a cargo agent, said, "I used to send a representative to stand in a queue at a leading bank to pay fees for chemical embalming (a technique used to to temporarily prevent decomposition of a corpse) pending the repatriation of the bodies of deceased expats." "I pay online for renewing my family's residency permits (iqamas) and processing exit-re-entry visas," said Abdul Fatah Al-Sulaiman, an Egyptian expatriate. "Things have changed significantly with the introduction of this system," he said. Yousef Al-Hargan, SADAD enrollment project manager at the Ministry of Finance, said, "around 29 million citizens and foreign residents can now access SADAD on the Internet or by telephone, which means they no longer need to pay bills in person.

Residents who cannot access these channels can still visit their nearest bank branch, where staff will help them make payments via the SADAD system." He also said that, "We were in dire need of a solution that would accommodate the technologies used by different billers." According to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, there are 128 entities included in the SADAD system. Last year, SR83 billion was paid via SADAD, a 41-percent increase from the previous year.

Around SR224 billion has been paid via SADAD since its inception. SADAD is the second largest electronic payments system in the world and already serves around 29 million users. SADAD enables billers to collect their payment electronically through all the banking channels available in the Kingdom, which includes 9,435 ATMs and 1,442 bank branches, as well as phone and Internet banking. This enables anyone to use SADAD without pre-registration anywhere in the world.

© Arab News 2014