1513-0124 Supporting Statement (10-2016)

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU

Supporting Statement –– Information Collection Request

OMB Control Number 1513–0124

Information Collection Request Title:

Customer Satisfaction Surveys for Permit Applications, Permits Online (PONL), Formulas Online (FONL), and COLAs Online.

Information Collections Issued under this Title:

• Original Permit Application Customer Satisfaction Survey

• Amended Permit Application Customer Satisfaction Survey

• PONL Original Permit Application Customer Satisfaction Survey

• PONL Amended Permit Application Customer Satisfaction Survey

• Formulas Online (FONL) Customer Satisfaction Survey

• COLAs Online Customer Satisfaction Survey

A. Justification

1. What are the circumstances that make this collection of information necessary, and what legal or administrative requirements necessitate the collection? Also align the information collection to TTB’s Line of Business/Sub-function and IT Investment, if one is used.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) administers chapter 51 (distilled spirits, wine, and beer), chapter 52 (tobacco products, processed tobacco, and cigarette papers and tubes), and sections 4181–4182 (firearms and ammunition excise taxes) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (IRC, 26 U.S.C.), as well as the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act, 27 U.S.C. 201 et seq.), pursuant to section 1111(d) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as codified at 6 U.S.C. 531(d). In addition, the Secretary of the Treasury has delegated certain IRC and FAA Act administrative and enforcement authorities to TTB through Treasury Department Order 120–01.

Among other things, the IRC and the FAA Act require alcohol industry members to apply for and obtain: (1) Permits to operate, (2) approval of formulas for certain alcohol beverage products, and (3) certificate of label approvals (COLAs) for alcohol beverages introduced into interstate or foreign commerce. The IRC also requires tobacco industry members to apply for and obtain operating permits. In addition to accepting paper forms for each type of approval request, TTB operates online application systems for permits—Permits Online (PONL), for formulas—Formulas Online (FONL), and for COLAs—COLAs Online. TTB customers access these systems via its website, TTB.gov (https://www.ttb.gov).

In order to measure the effectiveness and quality of the service TTB provides to its customers, the agency conducts customer satisfaction surveys on a regular schedule. On a monthly basis, TTB sends via email an invitation to participate in a customer satisfaction survey to all applicants who submitted a new or amended permit application on paper or through PONL. On a quarterly basis, TTB sends via email an invitation to participate in a customer satisfaction survey to a statistically-random sample of those who submitted an application through FONL or COLAs Online. Using a link in the e-mail invitation, the customer may voluntarily complete the customer satisfaction survey online via the Survey Monkey website. That online system then anonymously reports the survey results to TTB.

This information collection is aligned with:

Line of Business/Sub-function: General Government/Taxation Management.

IT Investment: PONL, FONL, COLAs Online.

2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is this information used?

The information that TTB collects via these customer satisfaction surveys is used within the agency to evaluate the effectives of its online application systems, to judge customer satisfaction with TTB’s online application systems, and to assess the need for improvements to those systems. Summaries of the results of these surveys may be reported to other interested parties within the Treasury Department.

3. To what extent does this collection of information involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology? What consideration is given to use information technology to reduce burden?

The TTB customer satisfaction surveys approved under this information collection are conducted electronically via Survey Monkey, an online system used by various Federal agencies to conduct customer satisfaction surveys. On a monthly basis, TTB sends via email an invitation to participate in a customer satisfaction survey to all applicants who submitted a new or amended permit application on paper or through PONL. On a quarterly basis, TTB sends via email an invitation to participate in a customer satisfaction survey to a statistically-random sample of those who submitted an application through FONL or COLAs Online. Using a link in the e-mail invitation, the customer may voluntarily complete the customer satisfaction survey online via the Survey Monkey website. That online system then anonymously reports the survey results to TTB.

4. What efforts are used to identify duplication? Can similar information already available be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Item 2 above?

This information collection consists of customer satisfaction surveys. Answers to the survey questions are based on the experience of each individual respondent and are, therefore, unique to each respondent. As far as TTB can determine, similar information regarding customer satisfaction with TTB’s various application systems is not available elsewhere.

5. If this collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, what methods are used to minimize burden?

TTB finds that these customer satisfaction surveys do not impose any significant administrative, cost, or response time burden on small businesses or small other entities. TTB notes that participation in its customer satisfaction surveys is voluntary and that these surveys are typically completed by individuals who wish to share their experience with TTB.

6. What consequences to Federal program or policy activities and what, if any, technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden will occur if this collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently?

TTB uses the responses to these surveys to evaluate the experiences of its customers using its application systems in order to improve the work done by the agency. If these surveys were not conducted or were conducted less frequently, TTB would not be able to know the satisfaction level of its customers who apply for permits or use its online systems, and TTB would not be able to use that information to improve the quality of the various application services it provides to alcohol and tobacco industry members.

7. Are there any special circumstances associated with this information collection that would require it to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines?

There are no special circumstances associated with this information collection.

8. What effort was made to notify the general public about this collection of information? Summarize the public comments that were received and describe the action taken by the agency in response to those comments.

To solicit comments from the general public, TTB published a “60-day” comment request notice for this information collection in the Federal Register on Monday, August 22, 2016, at 81 FR 56751. TTB received no comments on this information collection in response.

9. Was any payment or gift given to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees? If so, why?

No payment or gift is associated with this collection.

10. What assurance of confidentiality was provided to respondents, and what was the basis for the assurance in statute, regulations, or agency policy?

No specific assurance of confidentiality is provided for the information collected by these TTB customer satisfaction surveys. While invitations to participate in a TTB customer satisfaction survey are sent to particular individuals or businesses via email, TTB receives the results from Survey Monkey in aggregate. As such, TTB collects this information without any identifying customer information such as name, email address, or IP address).

11. What is the justification for questions of a sensitive nature? If personally identifiable information (PII) is being collected in an electronic system, identify the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) that has been conducted for the information collected under this request and/or the Privacy Act System of Records notice (SORN) issued for the electronic system in which the PII is being stored.

This information collection contains no questions of a sensitive nature. In addition, this information collection does not collect personally identifiable information (PII) in an electronic system. Therefore, no Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) or System of Records Notice (SORN) is required for this collection.

12. What is the estimated hour burden of this collection of information?

TTB estimates that it will invite up to 30,000 respondents per year to participate in the customer satisfaction surveys currently contained in, or to be added to, this generic information collection approval request. TTB estimates that each survey will take an average of 12 minutes to complete, resulting in an estimated total annual burden of 6,000 hours.

(30,000 respondents per year X 12 minutes per response = 360,000 minutes/60 minutes per hour = 6,000 hours.)

13. What is the estimated annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from this information collection request (excluding the value of the hour burden in Question 12 above)?

There is no cost to respondents associated with this information collection.

14. What is the annualized cost to the Federal Government?

The cost to TTB to use Survey Monkey to conduct the customer satisfaction surveys included in this information collection is $3,000 per year. The approximate TTB salary costs for the percent of time TTB employees spend on administering this collection is estimated to be $1,000. Therefore the total cost to the Federal government associated with this information collection is $4,000.

15. What is the reason for any program changes or adjustments reported?

There are no program changes associated with this collection.

As adjustments, we are reporting up to 30,000 possible respondents to this information collection, an increase from the 5,245 respondents reported in the 2013 Supporting Statement for this information collection. We also are reporting up to 6,000 estimated total annual burden hours, an increase from the 856 hours reported in the 2013 Supporting Statement for this information collection. (NOTE: The 2013 burden estimate summary entry in ROCIS for this information collection mistakenly reported 107,500 respondents and 53,000 burden hours.)

In addition, we are amending the title of this collection to more accurately reflect its purpose—from “Surveys for Applications, Permits Online (PONL), Formulas Online (FONL), and COLAs” to “Customer Satisfaction Surveys for Permit Applications, Permits Online (PONL), Formulas Online (FONL), and COLAs Online.”

16. Outline plans for tabulation and publication for collections of information whose results will be published.

Aggregate results of the customer satisfaction surveys conducted under this information collection will be tabulated for use within TTB and the Treasury Department. However, TTB will not publically publish the results of this collection.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection, what are the reasons that the display would be inappropriate?

As a cost saving measure for TTB, we are seeking approval not to display the expiration date for OMB approval of this information collection on the TTB customer satisfaction surveys approved under this information collection control number. By not displaying the expiration date of this collection on its customer satisfaction surveys, TTB will not have to update the surveys’ expiration date in its electronic systems and website pages or request that Survey Monkey make such updates to the surveys. As a result, the surveys would only require updating if and when TTB revises any of the surveys’ questions.

18. What are the exceptions to the certification statement?

(c) See item 5 above.

(f) This is not a recordkeeping requirement.

(i) No statistics are involved, the information is collected to study and improve our performance.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

This collection does not employ statistical methods.

1513–0124 Supporting Statement (10/2016)