New technologies, and more specifically artificial intelligence (AI), have endless applications, and Suma saw this and decided to use them to detect irregularities in tax payments. In particular, the body affiliated with the Provincial Assembly, began using aerial photographs taken by drone to detect possible fraudsuch as the extension of houses or the construction of swimming pools without the relevant permits. The initiative is part of a broader plan that aims to improve collection processes as well as services offered to citizens.
Suma Gestión Tributaria is focused on the development of the strategic plan 2021-2025, which, according to the organization’s director, José Antonio Belso, was born with the aim of helping citizens and institutions overcome challenges in a context in which the organization is located. We are intensifying efforts to become a more modern, responsible and inclusive organization. “We manage to create a new way of engaging with a society in constant crisis, which pushes us to focus our time on the really important things, like setting priorities, measuring and rewarding results,” he emphasizes.
Thus, after two years of implementation, it is evident that an operating model with more optimized, automated and standardized processes in terms of efficiency has been achieved. Among the different actions taken, the promotion of anti-fraud actions through machine learning and artificial intelligence stands out.. One of these is the use of aerial photographs called orthophotos to make volumetric comparisons. As Belso explains, “what we’re trying to detect, for example, are larger homes or swimming pools that, as I said before, are not there to combat possible fraud.” This is a pilot initiative in which two municipal councils in the province are currently participating.
Another initiative through machine learning is a pilot project. Tries to detect cases of fraud regarding licenses.
Artificial intelligence is also present in another initiative, in this case improving face-to-face engagement with citizens. The aim is to introduce a new function in the already operational application that will inform people who go to any Suma office without an appointment about the waiting times.
On the other hand, José Antonio Belso shows his satisfaction with the way the strategic plan was developed, which made it possible, among other things, to increase the managed values by 2.2% and reduce the costs of managing themselves. We increased productivity per employee in procedures by 3.4%, procedures by 1.4%, and customer service by 13.2%.
Suma Director also increased the rate of transactions not carried out in person by 3 percent. Wait time for an appointment decreased by 7.7%. Likewise, resource resolution time improves by 43.5%.
Indicators regarding collections also moved very positively. Total collection increased by 2%The success rate in voluntary collection increased by 0.7%, approaching the 2025 target. Executive collection rate increased by 23.3%, at historic levels, while revenues from deals increased by 2.3%.
But for José Antonio Belso, what ultimately matters most is the synthetic excellence index, which combines all these indicators and reflects an improvement of 32.9%.
Payment deferrals increased by 4%
It is a fact that family economies are deteriorating. Problems such as inflation or the increase in mortgage payments caused the payment deferrals granted by Suma in the first voluntary collection phase corresponding to the Mechanical Traction Vehicles Tax to increase by 4.4 percent compared to last year. In particular, according to the information provided by José Antonio Belso, the manager of the organization, a total of 3.4 million euros worth of convenience was provided to 13,663 taxpayers.
Despite this, the person responsible for Suma underlines that this situation did not prevent this phase from being closed with a collection of 131.1 million euros, with 88.7 percent, the highest rate achieved to date.
Although the trend is positive, there is no data yet on the second phase, Property Tax (IBI) collection.
This follows the development of last year, when total collections increased by 2% to 850 million euros. It was an exercise in which Suma provided services to 4.5 million members of the public, 500,000 of whom were in person.