The Times of India 17.09.2014
VMC abolishes manual collection of house tax
Varanasi:
Taking a step towards paperless office, Varanasi Municipal Corporation
had taken an initiative to bring its property and taxation department
online.
“We have abolished 100% manually collection of house
tax. The inspectors equipped with spot billing machine (SBM) go to the
houses to collect tax. Around 20% of people are paying house tax bills
online,” Sandeep Srivastava of computer coordinator cell of VMC. The SBM
service has been started from September 2 and till September15, as many
as 1,119 people paid their house tax through this service, he said. VMC
was first in Uttar Pradesh to begin online portal for paying tax in
2009.
In the current financial year from April to September 15,
as many as 330 people had deposited house tax worth Rs 3.78 lakh
online. The department has established computerised centres for paying
tax in Bhelupura, Dashashwmedh, Kotwali, Adampura and trans-Varuna zones
with the headquarters at VMC. People are free to pay bills anywhere at
these six places.
A tax payer said: “The computerised system is
bringing transparency in the system, which gives a feeling of
satisfaction.” E-services has brought more transparency in the
department as till 2009, VMC used to collect only Rs 7 crores to Rs 8
crores as tax but using e-services, the amount reached above Rs 22
crores annually.
VMC is also gearing up to provide death and
birth certificates of individuals on the spot in hospitals. The process
is in its last stage as the software of incurring digital signature of
people into the computer system has been stocked at NIC in Lucknow. For
experiment, ten hospitals including government and private nursing
homes, are to be connected with main computer system that would be
located in VMC.
