The figures of last three years’ online collections show that only 1% of property taxes and 2.76% of water bills were paid through the internet.
Though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started accepting online payments through its portal, very few people are using it to avoid queues at ward offices as they do not know about the facility. The figures of last three years’ online collections show that only 1% of property taxes and 2.76% of water bills were paid through the internet.
The BMC started the new system for paying property tax and water bills online at 500 cyber cafes that function as citizens facilitation centres (CFCs). “Many housing societies are not using the facility as it is difficult to access and make the payment online,” said Prakash Patil, deputy municipal commissioner (IT).
“Housing societies’ accounts are jointly operated by two office bearers, and it is not possible to access the same account online for two persons. This might be deterring the housing societies,” he added.
“There are three options for online payment — people can use the CFCs at local ward offices, go to cybercafes run by Sify, which has a tie-up with the BMC, or through ones which have a franchise of ITZ Cash,” said an official from BMC’s IT department.
“As of now, housing societies get one water and property bill for all the members. Once the individual billing system is implemented, more people will start using the web service,” Patil said.
“Currently, payments made by property owners mostly for commercial establishments,” he added.
“In the few months, the BMC is also going to allow online payment for other essential services like dog licenses, hotel licenses, hoarding incenses, and birth and death certificates,” another official said.
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