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| Going hi-tech |
Ranchi, Dec. 1: House owners in Ranchi rejoice. Paying municipal taxes for your property just got a lot easier.
The Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s plans of extending online holding tax payment facility became a reality today, a day after Axis Bank was roped in to act as facilitator.
From now on, all that house owners will need to do instead of queuing up at the municipal corporation’s office is to log on to www. ranchimunicipal.com. The site will provide the tax payers a link from where they would be able to out the amount due as taxes. If they want to make a holding tax payment, the house owners will have to provide details of their ATM, debit or credit cards issued by their respective banks, their holding number and ward number and the amount would be deducted from their accounts.
“This facility will save the tax payer the hassle of going all the way to the civic body office to pay. They can now do so from the comfort of their homes. A nominal service charge would be deducted by the bank for the online facility,” said Naresh Kumar Sinha, revenue officer of Ranchi Municipal Corporation.
Yesterday, the civic body had signed an agreement with Axis Bank and also paid it Rs 50,000 to develop the infrastructure for online payment of different taxes. Axis Bank had already developed the software for online collection of holding tax.
At present, there are 85,000 houses, which pay holding tax to the Ranchi civic body. A year ago, there were only 70,000 houses paying holding tax. However, after a survey found another 15,000 houses in the corporation’s area of jurisdiction, they were brought under the purview of holding tax.
Sinha said at present the municipal corporation collected Rs 6 crore as holding tax, all of which till recently came through direct collection wherein tax payers queued up in front of the civic body office to pay. Though online payment facility was now available, the collection at the civic body office would continue.
Holding tax is the main source of revenue for Ranchi Municipal Corporation and therefore, it wants to ensure payment is collected entirely and on time.
