Tuesday, March 5, 2013

TAX THRU POST

‘Post’ your taxes to City Corporation

10th April 2010 12:46 AM


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Post offices would soon turn saviours for tax payers in the capital. The City Corporation has decided to join hands with the Department of Posts, Southern Region, which covers the postal operations in Thiruvananthapuram, to introduce e-payment facility for tax-collection. So, queuing up before the Janasevana Kendram office or at the Corporation office would hopefully be a thing of the past.
It’s as part of the e-governance project of the City Corporation that the e-payment facility is being introduced. The Corporation Council,  which met on March 23, had given the go-ahead for the project and had laid the onus of preparing the software for the new facility on the Information Kerala Mission (IKM). “Almost all major post offices in the city would be covered under the project. Taxes, including property tax, shall be received at the post offices once this is through,’’ said Deputy Mayor V. Jayaprakash.
The IKM has already prepared softwares like ‘Saankhya’ and ‘Sanchaya’ for e-governance projects of the Corporation. However, for the new facility, the post offices would be given a user login facility in the main website of the Corporation through which they would be able to manage the proceedings while being connected with the main server at the Corporation office.
Said an official with the Department of Posts, “It’s a web-based package, a page-designing method. IKM will customize the page for our use and will create user logins. The tax-collection wing would be like a franchise in the department. Tax recovery would be immediately updated in the site and the Corporation can make use of the data without any delay. It would enable the quickest updating of tax figures.’’
The introduction of e-payment facility was a long-pending demand of the city and the local body has been receiving quite a number of pleas in this regard. With the e-payment facility on, a techie at Technopark or a government servant at the Collectorate would not have to travel to the main city to the pay taxes. The nearby post offices where internet facilities are installed would be enough. With the merging of five more panchayats to the Corporation on the cards, the facility has been viewed as a boon. Or else, the Corporation tax collection department would have met with the biggest headache ever. The Corporation is also holding talks with various banks to facilitate such a move for tax collection. Though the official agreement has not been penned so far, the tie-up with post offices would not take much time, Corporation officials hinted.
asha.nair@expressbuzz.com

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