The Times of India       07.10.2014   

RMC’s tax collection crosses 60L mark in 20 days

RANCHI : The outsourcing of tax collection has proved to be a major achievement for the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC), turning around its fortunes.

Sparrow Softech, the company which has been outsourced the work of tax collection in urban Ranchi has collected Rs 65 lakh in 20 working days flat. This far exceeds the amount of tax collected by RMC in the three months prior to outsourcing.

An official of Sparrow Softech said the field work started on August 26 and in the next 20 days, more than Rs 65 lakh has been collected.

The official added, "While most people are quite supportive, there are some who are reluctant to pay our field officers as they are new and not everybody knows them. However, we are hoping that things will be smoother in a matter of two-three months."

The annual tax collected by RMC before the work was outsourced was around rupees six crore to rupees seven crore. But after outsourcing, the amount collected is expected to go up to Rs 40 crore annually.

Deputy mayor Sanjiv Vijayavargiya said, "The tax collected in such a small time is five times more than the collection done by the corporation in the same duration. We are expecting that the annual collection will go upto Rs 40 crore."

Vijayavargiya said in the next six months the tax collection is expected to improve as people will adapt to the new system.

He said, "People have responded well to the new system as they can sit at home and pay taxes. Some are yet to come around. As they become familiar with the system, all problems will be solved."

The public response has been overwhelming with many people appreciating the step. Arvind Mishra, a resident of Patel Compound said, "For the last two years, the tax collectors of RMC had stopped coming to collect the taxes and it was not possible for us to run to RMC every time to pay taxes. I am glad that they outsourced tax collection on time and now they are coming home to collect the taxes."

Soon after RMC had outsourced the work of tax collection to Sparrow Softech Pvt Ltd, the company started the work of getting assessment forms filled and collecting taxes. However, lack of proper backlog of tax collection with RMC was creating problems both for the company as well as the citizens.

Rakesh Ranjan, a resident of Kishorgunj had to face trouble as the field executive appointed by the company was adamant to collect the holding tax for year 2013-14 which was already paid. He had said, "The tax collector said he doesn't have the record of my tax having been paid. I had to finally show him the receipt of payment from RMC only then did he leave."

Similarly, Amit Kumar of Harmu Housing colony had to pay the tax for 2013-14 as he had misplaced the receipt. Later when he complained at RMC, then only his money was returned.

The vice chairman of Sparrow Softech, Deepankar Kumar had then said there are some problems but they are working to smooth them out.

Kumar had said, "Earlier, RMC used to do manual collection and they had an internal system where they had to update the collections. But this was not done as a result of which the data of tax collection we got from RMC was not updated. We have spoken to RMC and they are updating the data from the receipts available."

The tax collected in such a small time is five times more than the collection done by the corporation in the same duration. We are expecting that the annual collection will go upto Rs 40 crore

Sanjiv Vijayavargiya | RMC DEPUTY MAYOR