Oman’s Ahlibank taps SunTec for VAT compliance solution

SunTec, a leading relationship-based pricing and billing company based here, has said that Oman’s Ahlibank has become its 50th customer for its indirect taxation solution. Ahlibank has partnered with SunTec for the latter’s GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) VAT (value-added tax) compliance solution.

VAT is likely to be introduced in Oman in early 2021 and Ahlibank has taken the proactive step of adopting a VAT compliance solution to ensure operational efficiency, enhance revenue, and augment customer experience, a SunTec spokesman said here.

Indirect taxation solution

The SunTec solution is designed to meet the needs of banks and financial services firms and can easily integrate with existing IT systems. It is designed to also process all taxable transactions across business lines and applications with reduced cost of compliance, and helps mitigate potential risks of compliance violations, penalties, and loss of reputation.

The SunTec indirect taxation solution is widely used by banks and financial services providers in GCC and India for GST or VAT compliance. Nearly three billion transactions are processed every year through its GCC VAT/GST compliance solution. With Ahlibank, SunTec now has 26 customers in the GCC region alone and 24 in India, including prominent financial institutions such as Kotak Mahindra Bank, for its indirect taxation solution.

Amit Dua, President, Client Facing Groups at SunTec, said that the tie-up with Ahlibank comes at a crucial time of the latter’s journey towards ensuring full GCC VAT compliance. With SunTec’s Xelerate Platform and GCC VAT compliance solution, Ahlibank can digitise the entire VAT compliance process with absolute minimal number of changes to their existing technology infrastructure.

The SunTec solution will enable Ahlibank to smoothly comply with regulations and manage potential regulatory changes with ease. The end-to-end solution is based on SunTec’s Xelerate platform, and helps automate the entire VAT compliance process, including centralised rule-based tax determination, input tax recovery, tax invoice, reconciliation, corrections, adjustments, statements, and regulatory reporting.

Complex transition phase

Transitioning towards a VAT/GST regime is complex, and it is imperative for banks and financial institutions to have a robust, scalable and agile solution to fully accommodate their local or region-wide needs, says Dua. “In the GCC region, for example, the VAT landscape is rapidly evolving and needs an agile solution to respond to changing regulatory requirements,” he added.

Abdullah Al Hatmi, CEO at Ahlibank, said that it is extremely crucial for the bank to be ready for VAT compliance. “We are very happy to partner with SunTec, and will now have a single solution in place covering all aspects of VAT compliance. We will be future-proofed given that any future regulatory changes will be handled by the solution with ease.”

Chetan Desai from Kotak Mahindra Bank recalled that when GST was introduced in India, IT systems were required to be more robust to solve the complexity related to indirect tax compliance while managing high volumes.

“SunTec’s indirect taxation solution has made our compliance adherence seamless. We are glad to have partnered with an extremely credible organisation and congratulate SunTec on their 50th customer win. This is a noteworthy acquisition establishing SunTec as a truly global company.”