ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF TAXPAYER SERVICE IN WESTERN ADDIS ABABA TAXPAYER BRANCH OF ETHIOPIAN REVENUE AND CUSTOMS AUTHORITY

Abstract

Service quality is one of the critical success factors that influence the competitiveness of an organization. Users of public service, unlike consumers in the private sector, usually have little or no option to go elsewhere for services or to with draw payment. Organizations that provide public services therefore need to take additional steps to ensure that services are of a high quality SERVQUAL is used to measure service quality amongst the taxpayers and employees of the branch. The purpose of this paper is to obtain a better understanding of the extent to which service quality is delivered within the western Addis Ababa medium taxpayer branch of ERCA. Cohens (2007) mathematical calculations (tables) were used in determining the size of a sample 365 from the population of 10,085 was taken as a respondent. Data collection methods employed was questionnaires and interviews for taxpayers and tax officials. The data has been analyzed via reliability method, descriptive statics and one sample t-test. The finding shows that the overall service quality perceived by taxpayers was not satisfactory, meaning all the five dimensions showed higher expectations than perceptions of service delivered by the branch. This implies that, west Addis Ababa taxpayer branch office is not providing the level of service quality demanded by taxpayers. The findings suggest that the western taxpayer branch office need to improve all the five dimensions of service quality. Finally, concerned officials of the branch should assess service quality satisfaction continuously to keep the services corresponded with customers’ point of view.