The Times of India            26.08.2013

NMC to bring in hi-tech property tax recovery system

NAGPUR: Around five lakh property tax payers can hope to get a hi-tech property tax paying system if the plans of standing committee chairman Avinash Thakre become reality. The new system will allow taxpayers to pay at their doorsteps or in the zone offices using credit and debit cards, and also find out next year's bill. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has started the process to procure the hi-tech system.

Thakre told TOI, 150 tablets with inbuilt systems, printer and card swiping machine will be procured to put an end to the existing manual system. "Tenders for procurement of these systems have been proposed. NMC is spending around Rs 10-15 lakh per year to upload the data of tax collected from 10 zones. New system will cost around Rs 25 lakh and can be utilized for years," he said.

Revealing his plans to introduce the system in a month, Thakre said demand notes of property tax for around 25 of total 75 wards have been already printed. "Process to send demand notes to the taxpayers through courier has also started to ensure effective distribution. Each ward comprises of tax inspector and tax collector. Thus 150 tax officials will get the tablets with the new system, so they can easily move about with it. They will go door-to-door and also sit at zone offices and issue bills after accepting the amount. They can also guide taxpayers about next fiscal's demand and even accept the amount," he said.

Thakre also said tax inspectors and collectors could also click pictures of properties with the same device, if they doubt the assessment. "So, the system will also reduce any scope for corrupt practices."

The tax payers have been facing many types of problems in the old system at the property tax department. A case from Laxmi Nagar zone came to fore recently, exposing improper uploading of data on property tax collected.

Resident of Aath Rasta square RR Singh went to the zone office to find out the status of his property tax dues. Singh told TOI, adjustment of excess payment recovered from him was not shown in last year's fiscal, forcing him to pay arrears. "I received demand note for 2011-12 showing amount paid in 2010-11 as arrears. Still, I was asked to pay the entire amount, with the assurance that it would be adjusted in the next fiscal. I did not pay the amount for 2012-13. When I went to the zone office to pay demand for 2013-14, I was asked to pay tax for 2012-13 also, with arrears of 2% per month," he said.

The officials at Laxmi Nagar zone office blamed the improper uploading of amount collected in computer system at head office situated at Mahal.

However, Thakre said such problems will be reduce with the property tax department covered under e-Governance. Under the centre's ambitious JNNURM scheme, the entire department has been computerized and now consumer-wise data is available in the system. The new tablet-based system will be linked with the centralized server.