Tinsukia, April 8: Taking a step towards building a digital India, the civic body of Upper Assam's Dibrugarh town today launched an online web portal for tax payers.

The portal was inaugurated by deputy commissioner Laya Madduri during a function held at the conference hall of the deputy commissioner's office. The meeting was presided over by Dibrugarh Municipal Board chairperson Anuradha Dey.

Madduri told The Telegraph that the move towards digitalisation is expected to benefit over 20,000 tax payers by facilitating easy payment.

"One can log on to www.dibrugarhmunicipality.org.in and make online payments sitting in their offices and homes without the hassle of going to the municipal office," Madduri said. At present, one can pay only holding tax and municipal rent online.

She said the web portal would accept all modes of payment - e-wallet, debit or credit card, net banking and even UPI.

"This will improve transparency in collection of municipal taxes. In a phased manner, the municipality will enable online collection of all types payments including trade license fees and tax collections," Madduri said.

Sources in the municipality said in the last decade tax collection has been very poor resulting in an arrear of Rs 3.3 crore towards property tax alone. On several accounts, tax collectors going door to door to collect taxes did not find the tax payer concerned while in a few cases tax payers could not go to the municipal office, sources said.

With the launch of the web portal, Dibrugarh municipal board has requested all defaulters to clear their arrears and join the local administration in development of the town.

The function was attended by ward commissioners and several executive officers.