Pay your holding tax from the comfort of your home.
Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon introduce a system under which tax collectors will visit homes with point-of-sale machines on which you can swipe your credit card to pay the holding tax.
A meeting of the PMC standing committee, chaired by mayor Afzal Imam and attended by commissioner Abhishek Singh among other PMC officials, took a decision to this effect on Friday.
PMC introduced the online facility of paying holding tax around one-and-a-half years ago to make services hassle-free. Moreover, it has recently launched the facility of paying holding tax at a few post-offices.
Sources in PMC said the launch of the new facility will increase the holding tax coverage by giving people more avenues to pay tax according to their choice.
Default in holding tax has been a major issue for the cash-strapped PMC.
According to sources, the civic body has suffered losses of around Rs 70 crore annually over the past few years, accruing to non-payment of holding taxes by owners of residential as well commercial properties. "We will install cash deposit machines in the corporation office in which residents can directly deposit the holding tax," said commissioner Singh.
PMC will introduce mobile toilets as well, which was decided in Friday's meeting. "Eight six-seat mobile toilets, 10 four-seat mobile toilets, 15 one-seat mobile toilets and five two-seat mobile toilets would be bought by mid-November," said Singh. He said PMC will spend Rs 1.1 crore to buy separate mobile toilets for men and women.
Among other decisions taken in Friday's meeting was the introduction of passes for parking in Mauryalok complex. Shopkeepers will be provided permanent passes, while the amount chargeable from visitors has not been decided yet.
Issues regarding clean-up of ghats and roads leading to ghats were also discussed in the meeting. Sources said the mayor rebuked PMC officials during the meeting for delaying Diwali and Chhath-related works. Imam asked officials to ensure completion of cleanliness and barricading related work at ghats ahead of Chhath.
