E-Government is a reality as more states turn to the Internet and electronic payment systems to conduct their daily business. Last week, the US government announced a new Web portal allowing Americans to do everything from paying bills and applying for passports to paying off student loans and obtaining fishing permits.
Pay.gov is a government-wide payment and collection site that should handle 80 million transactions totalling some $125 billion (€130 million) a year. When launched this autumn, the public sector will enjoy the same reduced costs and increased efficiency that the Internet has brought to private companies.
The bulk of the traffic is expected between businesses and federal government rather than private citizens. In fact, companies may even use the facility to pay fines - such as environmental pollution - over the Internet.
US citizens may use the site to download taxation forms and pay duty to the tax man electronically.
The government is developing or testing a number of new programs, including digital cash, secure Internet e-mail for the delivery of digital checks to service providers, Automated Clearing House debit authorisations over the Internet.
The site is part of the US Treasury's plan to modernise th operations of government. Similar plans are under way in Britain and ongoing discussions here between Government, banks and the postal service on the National Payments System may yield similar changes.
