Ranchi: The transport department on Wednesday launched the e-checkpost software to help transporters of other states pay permit tax online and enter Jharkhand without any hassles and in the process help the government earn Rs 100-crore revenue.
The software was launched on the first day of a two-day state-level technical workshop at Sri Krishna Institute of Public Administration here.
Transport department minister C.P. Singh, who inaugurated the workshop, said the state government was forced to close down all the manual checkposts in the bordering districts last year because of manpower problems and corruption.
"Due to shortage of manpower and corruption, we couldn't manage to run these checkposts in the first place. GST's introduction had made manual checkposts redundant. Now, with the introduction of the online checkpost software, we will be able to add around Rs 100 crore to the state coffers. Due to defunct manual checkposts, we were losing out on revenue from goods vehicles entering the state from outside," said Singh.
Across the state, there were as many as 10 checkposts in districts like Koderma, East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Garhwa, Hazaribagh, Pakur, Simdega and Gumla.
Singh said the software, developed by the National Informatics Centre for the transport department, will help transporters make online payment for temporary or permanent permits for entry and movement inside the state.
Transporters will have to simply log in at www.parivahan.gov.in and search for the checkpost tax option and select Jharkhand. Once online payment is made, the transporter will receive a message in his mobile phone.
"Since this is a new system, a workshop is needed to help officials learn about operational issues. Today (Wednesday), we broadly discussed revenue generation through technology, online checkpost and new technologies that are being introduced at the national level like SARATHI and VAHAN for online application and processing of driving license, etc," said secretary road transport department Rahul Sharma.
District transport officials who attended the workshop were informed about the online checkpost system.
"During discussions, we raised technical issues like what we should do in case of failure of payment. In the final session on Thursday, we expect to get answers of all issues," said one of the district transport officers.
The transport secretary had asked the DTOs to set-up a pragya centre near the checkposts to help transporters make online payments.
"Transporters outside the state must know that Jharkhand has switched over to the online mode. For that we have decided to put up banners and hoardings at all the entry points of the state and roadside dhabas to create awareness. For transporters from non-Hindi speaking belts like Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, we will display messages in their local language as well," the secretary said.
