The Hindu      04.08.2010

Plan to launch property tax payment through ATM

Aloysius Xavier Lopez

— Photo: R. Ragu

NEW FACILITY: Property tax remittance through ATMs is expected to help a large number of taxpayers in Chennai.

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation is planning to launch property tax payment through Automated Teller Machine (ATM) of banks.

Senior officials of the State Bank of India recently held discussions with Commissioner of the Corporation Rajesh Lakhoni on commissioning of the new facility.

It is expected to ensure a hassle-free mode of property tax payment. Many other banks have also come forward to be part of the system.

Provision would be made in the system for the taxpayer to remit the property tax by feeding the zone number, ward number, bill number and sub-number (apartments in a complex and divided properties have sub-numbers).

The payment can be made after the system provides the details of the total amount to be paid.

The taxpayer may then download the receipt from the Corporation website at his own convenience and take printouts.

“Any person can make use of the facility to pay the property tax, not necessarily a SBI customer,” said an official of the Corporation. The system with the payment gateway would be designed to update the data instantaneously, the official added.

As access to ATMs is better in the city limits, this mode of property tax payment is expected to be of help for a large number of taxpayers, said the official.

A chunk of the property tax in the city is being collected by door-to-door operations through handheld devices.

Online and integrated voice response system (IVRS) are other modes of payment of property tax.

If properly implemented, the ATM mode of payment would become one of the most popular among property taxpayers, the official said. IVRS for property tax enquiry and payment was launched by Chennai Corporation this year.

The Hindu       30.06.2010

Corporation launches website

Staff Reporter

— Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

Faster:Mayor A.L.S. Subramanian launching the Tirunelveli Corporation's website on Tuesday.

TIRUNELVELI: If you are not able to contact the corporation officials or councillors over the phone to complain about poor drinking water supply to your area or about the gradually ‘growing' garbage mound on a public utility space near your home, you may hereafter mail the complaints through the local body's official website launched on Tuesday by Mayor A.L. Subramanian.

An acknowledgement will be sent by e-mail for the complaint sent through http://tirunelvelicorp.tn.gov.in.

Residents can also forward suggestions through the corporation's website to improve its functioning on every front. Since the mobile phone numbers of councillors and officials have been hosted in the website, you can also reach them through their cell phones.

“Since we'll update the website periodically, chances of hosting obsolete mobile phone numbers (of officials and the councillors) is very less,” said Commissioner N. Subbaiyan.

Though the corporation has made arrangements in its website to download applications for getting birth / death certificates, there is no provision as of now to submit the same online.

“We are working in this direction as our ultimate goal is to ensure paperless governance at all levels of the corporation. Those who file complaints with us now will soon receive proper reply from the official concerned regarding the action taken to solve the cited problem. Moreover, online tax payment is also our immediate objective that will avoid a range of problems,” Dr. Subbaiyan noted.

The corporation has planned to list-out all its ‘achievements,' development schemes to be executed in the website and hence the public can pinpoint with concrete proof the flaws, if any, in the execution of such programmes.