Dubai – 15 November 2017:  Dubai Customs has been shortlisted for Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Program 2017. The nominated initiative that has made it to the finals is called “Smart Refund”. 

The Smart Refund is one of the eight government initiatives announced by Dubai’ the Model Center of the Executive Council of Dubai Government as nominees to win the coveted Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Program public award category. 

A public poll will be held from November 23 to December 7 upon which the initiative acquiring the highest number of votes will be awarded the Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Program flag. 

Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, director of Dubai Customs, said that the authority is committed to improving customs service delivery systems to save customers time and effort and raise their level of trust in public service. 

The Robotic Process Automation – Smart Refund initiative by Dubai Customs is a breakthrough in modern information technology solutions. Dubai Customs introduced Artificial Intelligence robotic capability to automate claim and refund  service through  enhancing  reconciliation and validation processes . The robot matches and validates line item details with supporting electronic/scanned documents without any human intervention. 

This initiative will reduce time, cost, eliminate errors, mitigate fraud, improve service compliance and increase customer satisfaction. It cuts down cost by 80% from AED 31.87 to AED 6.21. The annual cost saving of the initiative is tantamount to AED 23.5 million, besides the service delivery time reduction from 7-9 minutes to less than a minute. It has helped Dubai Customs to raise customer satisfaction to 99%. The full potential of this innovation is yet to be exploited in other services offered by the organization. 

Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, director of Dubai Customs, said that the authority is committed to improving customs service delivery systems to save customers time and effort and raise their level of trust in public service. “Artificial Intelligence offers great opportunities in this field which we could not but take advantage of,” he said.

Hussam Juma, director of Service Innovation Department and Innovation Team leader at Dubai Customs, said the Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart Government Program actively contributes to materializing Dubai Plan 2021, by leading the smart transformation drive via implementation of Artificial Intelligence technology applications in the UAE. 

“Dubai Customs is a strong contender to win this year’s cycle of the Smart Government program through its cutting-edge Smart Refund that ushers in a new era in customs business and service delivery,” he added.