A computer error is stopping thousands of taxpayers paying fines for overdue car tax (IUC). More worryingly, the government has admitted that some have unwittingly ended up paying fines for other car owners.
The complaint was made not by a consumer group, but by the president of the Trabalhadores dos Impostos (Union of Tax Office Workers.)
"There are thousands of taxpayers who are being affected with only a very small number able to pay fines for these offences," said Paulo Ralha, adding that it due to a computer problem which started more than a week ago.
Normally the fines are paid after a paper has been printed out in the Finanças office, containing a barcode for optical reading. This barcode is a numeric code that is keyed in manually by tax office staff.
“The taxpayer is failing to have their payments registered because the barcode issued by the central Autoridade Tributária is not correct. Even then, when a payment is accepted, the system does not credit the payer, but a third party," explained Ralha.
The error can be spotted immediately the fine is paid because the printed proof of payment shows the details of another taxpayer.
"This has caused chaos at Finanças offices, said Ralha who explained that some taxpayers have demanded that staff sort out the problem there and then, and have become angry when staff have been unable to do so.
The failure is due to an 'obsolete' computer system used in Finanças offices, "This situation just generates a list of errors and an accumulation of debts pending, it is symptomatic of the kind of service we provide today without the benefit of a quality computer system," concluded Ralha, firmly on the side of the taxpayers.
