The Hindu 12.01.2010

Corporation to purchase 10 hand-held machines

Special Correspondent

VELLORE: The Vellore Corporation has decided to purchase 10 hand-held tax collection machines at a total cost of Rs.6 lakh in order to augment tax receipts and simplify tax payment and collection.

K.R. Selvaraj, Commissioner, Vellore Corporation, told The Hindu on Monday that out of the total tax demand for 2009-10, the Corporation had so far collected only 25 per cent. Previously, tax collectors went door to door and collected taxes. Later, the Corporation established five tax-collection centres in different parts of Vellore, including one at the Corporation office to collect the various taxes and issue computerised tax receipts. The public are remitting their property tax, profession tax and water tax at these centres.

Though this facilitated payment and collection of taxes, it did not help augment the receipts. Therefore, the Corporation decided to acquire handheld machines

Once the machines are ready, assessees need not go to the collection centres to pay their taxes since the tax collectors would themselves visit their homes and not only collect the taxes but also issue receipts on the spot.

The Commissioner said that an added feature of the handheld machines was that they were connected to the server in the Corporation office, and the moment a receipt is issued to an assessee in his house, the payment of tax would be recorded in the Corporation’s server.

Touchscreen kiosk

The Corporation also planned to install a touchscreen kiosk at a cost of Rs.3 lakh in the Corporation office, in order to enable the public to access all information about the services rendered by the Corporation, including the procedures to be followed for applying for a building licence, water connection and other services, information about the taxes due from the assessees, and information about the ongoing and future schemes of the Corporation.

The Corporation also planned to install a biometric machine at a cost of Rs.50,000 to record the attendance of the staff and the time of their reporting for duty.

This is expected to reduce the expenditure on buying attendance registers, besides ensuring punctuality among the staff and enable the officials to have details of the latecomers and absentees.

Resolution passed

The Corporation Council passed resolutions approving the purchase of the above machines at its meeting held last month.

The Corporation was taking steps to buy the handhld tax collection machines and install the touch-screen kiosk and biometric attendance-recording machine before the end of March.

All the machines would be acquired through the tender process, Mr. Selvaraj said.

The Hindu 12.01.2010

Fund allotted to eradicate plastic use

Staff Reporter

Tuticorin: Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has allotted a sum of Rs. 4 lakh to eliminate plastic use in the district, according to Collector G. Prakash.

In the first phase, the district administration would tie up with Corporation for analysing the activities to be carried out within the corporation limits, he said while addressing the media.

The fool-proof method of proceedings would be ready in ten days. Referring to the distribution of free dhotis and saris ahead of Pongal festival to the people of below poverty line, Mr. Prakash said around 90 per cent of the beneficiaries had been covered so far and the remaining would be completed within January 13.

The garments would also be given to the people entitled to get the old age pension.

Responding to a query, he said that 98.6 per cent of children under the age of five were given pulse polio drops in the district .

The staff of the Health Department would carry out a door-to-door verification to find out the left-out children from the polio drive, if any, he added.