State to start online payment for property tax in Panchayat areas

Kolkata: As the Panchayat department has been facing difficulties in collecting property tax from the people under its areas for a long time, the state government has decided to operate the online tax-paying system in an effective manner.

Sources said that the state Panchayat department has already informed all the Panchayats in the state. The Panchayats have also been asked to carry out an awareness campaign in all the villages.

The officials of the department will monitor for a month if the online payment system is functioning properly and people are submitting the tax online without any hiccup and if everything goes as planned, the full-fledged online payment system will be introduced in all Panchayat areas soon.

It was learnt that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a number of meetings with the officials of Panchayat and other departments as well in this regard.

All the Panchayats have already uploaded in the portal the information as to what would be the tax of each property owner.

Every individual property owner has submitted a form to their respective Panchayat offices giving the details of their property. Information relating to more than 1.5 crore households has already been uploaded to the portal.

The state government was also keen on introducing an effective online payment system in panchayat areas like the way people in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) areas pay their taxes.

An effective mechanism would also provide hassle-free services to the people in villages.

The owners will have to visit the Panchayat department website and get to know the details about the tax they will have to pay.

They will need to provide the required information on the portal to make online payments.

After the Mamata Banerjee government came to power, it has emphasised the ‘ease of doing business’ so that the people get hassle-free services in every department, be it the civic bodies or government offices.

A robust infrastructure has also been set up to strengthen the online service delivery mechanism.