MC relaunches online property tax collection portal

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 27

The Municipal Corporation has once again launched its online service for paying property tax, this time with an aim to succeed. The web portal service will enable the residents to pay their tax online without the hassles of long queues. The step is likely to ease the procedure for better and improved collection system.

Launching the portal today, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and MC Commissioner Sonali Giri hoped that the system would get people to pay their dues in time. “The web portal is completely different from the one which the MC had launched earlier. It will have three main features depending on the nature of taxpayers. First, it has a feature for those residents who use net banking and wish to pay their tax online through credit or debit cards without any delays.

Second, it also enables people who are not net bankers but can login in and get a print out of a challan and then pay the amount at our branches. Third, we are working on an option for people who are not familiar with computer or online services. They can go to their nearest branch of HDFC bank, with whom we have a tie up, and ask their employees to log in and fill out their form and make the payment. The third feature will take some time as we are going through security analysis and we aim to launch it soon,” said Giri.

The MC has tied up with HDFC Bank for zonal collection of the tax online and each resident will have to create their user ID on the portal.

Previously, the MC had attempted to digitise the procedure for paying property tax twice, but after a while, the website went defunct due to technical problems. But Giri says that this time they have rooted out technical problems. The MC’s previous lapses in achieving the targets due to poor percentage of property tax payers in city have made them streamline the collection system. Teams were deputed to carry out a series of regular checks on defaulters and issue challans. With the new web portal, the civic body aims to reach out to maximum citizens and weed out any delays.

The system would also benefit residents who cannot make payments at the tax collection centres physically.