“The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has broken a clear promise
to provide a Unix/Linux client for its new Electronic Commerce
Interface (ECI – http://eci.ato.gov.au) software. The ECI client
allows businesses to, among other things, lodge their Business
Activity Statements (BAS) electronically. As a result, Unix/Linux
groups are not only planning to lobby for a change to the decision
but also seek to establish an open communication between people and
government community organisation.”
“The ECI software is a native client application that is used in
conjunction with a standard Internet connection. When the first
client for Windows was released in mid-2000, a promise was made to
deliver a client for the Mac and Unix/Linux platforms. People who
registered to lodge their BAS electronically received a CD with the
Windows client software. The CD cover clearly stated that
“development of the Apple Macintosh and Unix versions of the ECI
are near completion but not available at this stage.”
“In a complete turn-around, the ATO has now decided not to
release a client for Unix/Linux. This decision was revealed in a
fax sent by the ATO to Ron Skeoch of Muli Management
(www.muli.com.au), who campaigned to at least have the
specifications of the ECI made public.”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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