The Times of India 24.08.2013
AMC likely to introduce online LBT payment system
AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is planning to introduce online local body tax (LBT) payment system in the city. Deputy municipal commissioner Suresh Petgaonkar said on Friday that the civic body was working on the proposal to speed up the process of tax collection and mop up more revenue.
"Talks are on with 2-3 software development companies. We are planning to evolve a system wherein we can communicate with the LBT payers. We are also working on providing them an online payment window," he said, adding that it will take at least a month to finalize the plan.
The civic body has a huge pool of 21,000 registered traders. However, it has only a hand full of staff to cater to their needs.
According to sources, the shortage of manpower was restricting the civic body's tax collection figure to a certain level. At present, there are 25 staff members in the LBT department which is collecting tax manually.
Under the present system, the traders manually fill the assessment and challan form and pay the tax in banks. But Petgaonkar said the proposed system would provide on-line facility to the traders.
"This will bring in efficiency and transparency in the tax collection system," he said.
Besides, Petgaonkar said that the civic body was collecting email IDs of all the traders so that it could send them online notices.
"This facility will reduce the pressure on our employees, who are visiting the traders to serve the notices at present. We are also trying to incorporate an online tax assessment method which would enable the traders to calculate their tax component. Besides, the system will also give a rough idea of the traders evading the tax," he said.
Petgaonkar said the civic body could spend about Rs 10 lakh to develop the system. This will increase the civic body's revenue, he said.
The AMC recently posted an LBT collection of Rs 45.99 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal against a target of Rs 200 crore. Petgaonkar said that in 2011-13, the LBT collection was recorded at Rs 162 crore which surged in 2012-13 to Rs 180 crore.
"In the current year, the administration had set a target of Rs 200 crore for LBT collection, but the general body increased it to Rs 250 crore," he said.
