The highest percentage of VAT registration applications processed within the target time of 14 days between January and September 2007 was 21% in March, said financial secretary Jane Kennedy in response to a written Parliamentary question.
The lowest point in that period was reached in April when only 7% were processed within 14 days.
Ms Kennedy added that 'HMRC have put improvement measures in place and expect that a real upturn will be visible later this year'.
The average processing time at 31 July 2007 was 32 days in the Wolverhampton registration site, but 52 days in the Newry site.
The financial secretary mentioned that in order to address this imbalance work has been transferred between locations. Since 1 October, all new applications have been handled at Wolverhampton.
