“All those failing to pay the taxes before the deadline will be penalised two per cent every month. This will compel many to pay taxes on time and the civic administration needs to provide multiple options to property owners for the purpose,” said Vilas Kanade, PMC tax assessment and collection officer.

There should not be any excuse for peopel to delay the payment, he said, adding that the civic administration is upgrading its system of tax collection.

The PMC has a tie-up with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank for the online collection of tax. We are in discussion with other banks to provide the same facility to tax payers having account in the respective banks,” Kanade said.

The civic body is also working on accepting the tax through cards, he said, adding that large number of people these days use online banking and card facility for transaction.

“Number of people paying tax online is doubling every year. Around 21,000 people used the online facility in 2009-10 against 11,000 in 2008-09, while only 4,500 used the facility in 2007-08. The administration is expecting it to reach 50,000 by the end of current financial year,” Kanade said. The civic body has also asked all interested banks to prepare a plan to make available the facility of card payment to its account holders which would be cleared by the month end. Kanade said as per the BPMC Act, the bill has to be delivered at the doorstep. “We are trying to explore all possibilities to ensure that each property owner gets the bill at doorstep. The administration has also initiated text messaging service wherein people can send the property code and get the information on dues,” he said.

The meeting was held today under the chairpersonship of Mayor Anu Chatrath and attended by other members.

The decision comes in the wake of the boycott of auction of parking lots scheduled for last week by contractors. The contractors had stated that the installation of equipment for automation and semi-automation would not be feasible for them. They had demanded that the civic body should install the equipment and give it to them for maintenance.

The cost of automation of parking lots is Rs 13 lakh, while that for semi-automation is Rs 5 lakh. The contractors were of the opinion that since the civic body earns a large amount as revenue from auction of parking lots, some amount could be spent on automation.

The members of the committee decided that the equipment would be installed by the civic body and then auctioned.

In another decision the committee has agreed on the terms and conditions for enhancement of rent of shops in villages and other properties. The civic body had been facing loss of revenue as the rent from the shops was not being collected. The committee approved laying of paver blocks in various sectors including Sector 41, green belts in Sector 32 and 46, Sector 2, Sector 22, Sector 52 and Sector 15.

The V-6 road in Sector 27 would be widened carpeted. Streetlights would be provided on the V-4 road in Sector 7 and parking area of the market in Sector 20.

The committee has decided that the permission for stacking of construction material for commercial buildings would be Rs 1000 for 1000 square feet for one month, while for residential buildings it would be Rs 250 for 1000 square feet. Expenditure of Rs.1 lakh has been approved for peace fest-2010. The estimate for providing and laying 50 mm thick cement concrete flooring on balance back service lanes, Sector 22 has been approved.