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Ammon News - Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh Tuesday urged concerned public institutions to offer optimal service to citizens and investors, and simplify procedures as key steps prescribed by the public sector modernization scheme.

"Providing best service to citizens is a message that must be fulfilled by everyone involved in public work, especially in a basic service department," he said during visits to the Departments of Lands and Survey, and the Income and Sales Tax, where he was accompanied by Finance Minister Mohammad Al-Ississ.

He noted "the noticeable progress" made in the past few months by the Lands and Survey Department towards automating services, urging smooth, quality and prompt service to citizens.

The Prime Minister called for a further "qualitative leap" in the level of service that can be felt by the citizens, adding that automating and facilitating services are key axes of the public sector modernization document. He also checked first hand on the workflow at the Real Estate Investment Section and listened to observations by service recipients.

During his visit to the Income and Sales Tax Department, the Prime Minister hailed the department's key role in achieving many of the goals in the six reviews with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), through offering a successful model in dealing with the government's commitment to structural reform programs and fighting tax evasion and avoidance.

He pointed out that the prudent financial management of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Jordan's monetary policy as well as fighting tax evasion and avoidance are the three elements of the long-term financing programs with the IMF, which decide the success of the evaluation model.

Khasawneh said Jordan managed to maintain fiscal and monetary stability as a result of the Finance Ministry's prudent policy, which steered away from raising the tax burden on citizens through a set of measures focused on combating tax evasion and avoidance, in addition to prudent policy and the Central Bank's independence, backed by "unprecedented" strategic currency reserves.

The government, he noted, made successes that spared the country from the catastrophic consequences of unwise policies, and enabled it to avoid hyperinflation and mitigate the negative repercussions on the national economy.