Rajahmundry: Online payment mode yet to pick up

Rajahmundry: Even as both the Centre and state government are  asking people to go digital and encourage online mode of payment, the civic authorities seem to be indifferent to the idea. There is no such online facility to pay various taxes in Rajahmundry Municipal Corporation. People have to visit either the municipal corporation office or Mee Seva Centres to pay the taxes at present. Elderly persons and those who cannot go to the municipal corporation office and Mee Seva Centres are demanding the civic authorities to provide online facility to pay taxes.

Employees working in both private and public sector are feeling the same as it will be easy for them to pay tax online at the click of a mouse either from their home or  work place instead of visiting corporation office or Mee Seva Centres and standing in long queues to pay the taxes. Some employees who are working locally can manage to pay taxes by taking permission in their offices for an hour or so. However, those who work away from Rajahmundry travelling long distances find it difficult to pay taxes as they have to take leave and do it.

Civic authorities maintain that though the online payment of taxes was started earlier in the municipal corporation, it is not functioning properly at present. The reason attributed is technical glitches. Civic authorities in Visakhapatnam have started online payment of taxes followed by Vijayawada and Guntur. The authorities say though they were allotted a gateway for online payment of taxes but there is no clarity on several issues like to which bank account the remitted taxes will be transferred. There are as many as 67,000 assessees  in the corporation to pay property tax and vacant land tax and the civic authorities collect water cess, entertainment tax and other forms of taxes on a regular basis in a financial year.

Municipal corporation deputy commissioner M.D. Phani Ram said, “We had started online payment of property tax but due to some technical reasons, the facility was withdrawn. We have been sending a series of reminders to the concerned authorities to restore the facility but in vain. We wish to provide the facility soon for the benefit of the people.”

Similarly, the mobile application launched by the civic authorities providing various services is also facing a problem for some time. Even after pressing on the icon of mobile app on the mobile phone, the application opens and asks for ‘One Time Password’ to be received on registered mobile phone. But the OTP never pop up on the mobile phone due to technical problem with the server.

Citizens are appealing to the civic authorities to provide online facility as it will be easy for them to pay taxes without the trouble of visiting the municipal office or Mee-Seva Centres as taxes have to be paid twice in every financial year.