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tate-owned Bank Mandiri has launched a new feature for the purpose of tax and other state revenue payments in its electronic data capture (EDC) machines as part of a government program.

The EDC'€™s new feature, called a '€œmini ATM'€, is available real-time online for Mandiri debit card holders for various purposes, including online payments for tax through certain billing codes.

Bank Mandiri vice president Sulaiman A. Arianto said the new feature was part of the lender'€™s efforts to support the full implementation of the government'€™s new IT system, which would help optimize tax payments process.

'€œThis new feature can also facilitate payments of non-tax state revenues [PNBP] as well as excise. For the first phase, we will place 15 EDCs with this new feature in tax offices appointed by the Tax Directorate General,'€ Sulaiman said on Tuesday.

Sulaiman said the new feature had complete services provided by Mandiri, which is one of the banks appointed to manage state revenues both in rupiah and dollar terms using the government'€™s new IT system.

The government'€™s new IT system, called the State Revenue Module Generation 2 (MPN G2), is an integrated electronic platform introduced in February this year that manages state revenues through simpler procedures in tax and non-tax payments.

The new system replaces the manual MPN Generation 1, which was limited to physical branches of several banks and post offices.

The new system implementation is expected to help the government in optimizing its cash flows and to ensure better budget management.

As of October, Bank Mandiri booked 2.8 million transactions worth Rp 263.1 trillion (US$18.7 billion) related to state revenues.