The Hindu 24.11.2009

Municipality to procure hand-held billing machines

K.Lakshmi

— Photo: V.Ganesan

A Madhavaram Municipality official checks out a hand-held billing machine to be used in property tax collection.

CHENNAI: The Madhavaram Municipality will soon introduce the system of using hand-held billing machines for property tax collection on a pilot basis.

The local body recently floated tenders to procure four such machines.

Officials of the municipality said the system is being launched for the first time at Madhavaram among the local bodies across the State. Use of the machines would mean that the residents need not travel to the property tax collection centres to pay the levy as the bill collectors would visit their houses.

Once the door number and street name is fed in to the device, the tax amount due would appear on the screen. Consumers would also be issued the receipt on the spot, the officials said.

The municipality would spend Rs.2.4 lakh on procuring the machines.

GPRS-enabled

A senior official of the Municipality said as the machines are GPRS-enabled, the details about the transactions would be updated immediately at the municipality office.

There are about 15,000 assesses in the municipality.

Collection centres will continue

The bill collection centres of the local body would continue to function even after the launch of the new system. The hand-held billing machines are expected to be put to use next month.