The Local Self-Government Department is all set to shift property tax payment in all local bodies to a fully online system. Close to 70% of urban local bodies have implemented the fully online payment system ‘Sanchaya’ for property tax payment, while the same has been implemented in all panchayats. An automatic messaging system will be implemented for taxpayers to be notified closer to the payment deadline.
The department has tasked the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) to choose a service provider to integrate the automatic messaging system, which would also send a payment link to the taxpayer. Currently, the system has a facility to send messages reminding the tax payers of the upcoming payment date, without any payment link. The facilities for online payment of tax and printing of payment certificates will be integrated into the Integrated Local Self-Governance Management System (ILGMS) citizen portal.
Recent instances of misappropriation of funds, for instance at the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, had pointed at the importance of shifting to a fully online system, to reduce the leeway for corrupt officials. Even in local bodies where the online system was implemented, a large number of payments happen manually, especially due to lack of awareness about the system. The rolling out of the Sanchaya online revenue collection system, designed by the Information Kerala Mission (IKM) began in the local bodies around 2014.
But there have been issues with the database in many local bodies, leading to an effort on the part of the Government as well as the local bodies to clean up the data, to remove ambiguous or duplicate entries.
