Bhubaneswar: The civic body is planning to introduce online holding tax payment system in all its wards from September 1.

Now, the online tax payment service is available in only 16 of the city's 67 wards. But, from September this year, people from all across the city will be able to pay holding tax both online and offline.

To execute the plan, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has begun digitising the holding tax data of all units in all wards under the e-governance module of the state government. Once done, the taxpayers will only have to visit the Odisha Online website of the state government and make the payment using their debit or credit card or Internet banking.

With the introduction of the online payment system, the civic body is aiming to ensure a good collection of holding tax. "The aim is to ease the service for the residents, which will also reflect in our tax collection statement," said the official.

The civic authorities will also introduce an alert mechanism to let the taxpayers know about their dues and the payment dates. In the process, the civic authorities will get the cell phone numbers and e-mail ids of the taxpayers and send them an alert well in advance intimating them about their dues and payment date.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said that alongside making the online payment system available in all wards, they were also geo-tagging all holdings to ensure that the tax section calculates dues without any error. "The online payment module will greatly benefit the city residents," said Jena.

Residents also welcomed the idea. "We are steadily migrating to the online world since it saves a lot of time and resources. The online tax payment system will be of great help to us," said Nayapalli resident Debranjan Ojha.