The Abercrombie administration has made significant progress in cashing general excise tax payments.

In July the state Department of Taxation processed 72,754 payments within seven days, compared with just 219 payments in July 2010. The department has made cashing the payments a priority after hearing complaints from the business community that payment processing often took more than a month.

At an informational briefing Tuesday before the state Senate Ways and Means Committee and the state Senate Economic Development and Technology Committee, administration tax officials said they inherited a department that was highly politicized, had inefficient processes and inflexible and outdated functionality.

The Department of Taxation processes more than 2.4 million tax returns a year, 70 percent of them filed on paper. Tax analysts hope to reverse the practice and have 70 percent of returns filed electronically by 2014.

The department also processes more than 1.7 million tax payments a year, 68 percent filed on paper.

Improving efficiency of tax collections is one of the goals of the state’s broader information technology transformation.

Sanjeev "Sonny" Bhagowalia, the state’s chief information officer, told senators that the transformation would be done in seven phases over 11 years. He plans to present the Legislature with a detailed plan by July with estimates of the cost and the technology necessary to complete the transformation.

"The opportunity is right in front of us," he said. "It’s not just money; it’s innovation."