New facility for tax remittance

Corporation to implement first phase of Sanchaya software…

Property tax can be remitted at any zonal office.
Software developed by Information Kerala Mission

City residents can soon avail themselves of the facility to remit property tax at any zonal office of the Corporation with the implementation of the first phase of the Sanchaya integrated financial management application in the city Corporation by the month-end.

The Sanchaya application software has been developed by Information Kerala Mission (IKM) as part of computerisation of revenue collection and accounting in local bodies. In the first phase of its implementation, the software will be used to record and assess property tax collection.

“The first phase of Sanchaya is expected to become operational this week. We are also planning to set up a touch- screen at the Corporation main office where the public can access details of their tax amounts and arrears,” said Deputy Mayor V. Jayaprakash.

Other than property tax, the Sanchaya database will include details on professional tax, entertainment tax, licensing of Dangerous and Offensive Trades and licensing of Prevention of Food Adulteration in later phases. Tax collection at the six Corporation zonal offices and the main office will be interlinked using a BSNL Virtual Private Network (VPN). An IKM official said the interlinking of zonal offices would be completed after increasing the server capacity at the Corporation main office.

One of the biggest advantages of Sanchaya application will be the facility to monitor the Demand Collection Balance of taxes anytime during the financial year. This is enabled by automatic updating of tax collection records in Sanchaya.

“Sanchaya has been developed as a back-end application software supporting the accounting software Saankhya. While Saankhya facilitates financial transactions, Sanchaya will include backlog database pertaining to tax collection and tax arrears,” the IKM official said.

He said the process of data capturing for Sanchaya began almost three years back, around the time when Saankhya was implemented in the city Corporation. During this time, more features including file movement and file tracking, had been integrated into the system.

The trial run of Sanchaya was first conducted at the Attipra zonal office in February 2008.

The public will be able to access information regarding property tax on the Corporation web site by May 15. There are also plans to link premises mapping along with property tax in a later stage, along with facility for online tax payment.

Although primary-level training has already been given to Corporation staff on the use and application of the software, the official said that a second level of training might be required once the software is fully operational.

Courtesy: The Hindu Daily 02 May 2009