PCMC finds a pill for property tax headache

PUNE, JULY 25: Industries for long have been doing their bit to help the community in their own way. In yet another example of its kind, ...

PUNE, JULY 25: Industries for long have been doing their bit to help the community in their own way. In yet another example of its kind, the Mahindra British Telecom (MBT) in Pimpri, has developed a software for the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to simplify its task of collection of property taxes.

While MBT, one of the leading global companies providing software solutions, has signed a memorandum of understanding for development of the software for the PCMC as a community service, the software is to be made available free of charge by MBT to any of the municipal corporations in the country, if so demanded.

As a pilot project, the application of the software in the PCMC is to be made from early August at the Bhosari divisional office. In Bhosari division alone the civic staff has to handle the collection of the taxes of nearly 14,700 properties. The PCMC has 15 divisional offices with the total registered 1.32 lakh properties. The task involves other matters such as examining the current demand, the arrears and informing people about rateable value of properties. The PCMC, at present has a centralised system of collection of property taxes. The entire work of billing and issuance of bills is carried out manually. There is only one computer in the centralised office for maintaining records.

Nitin Mehendale, MBT group head working on the project, said, “The technology is user-friendly with graphical user interface application. The centralised system of billing of property taxes was a problem for the corporation. Decentralisation of the system was the solution.” At any of the divisional offices, at least five computers can be installed in a single system and that many number of civic employees can work simultaneously.

The development of the software took four months. The MBT put in 20 months for development of the software. Mehendale said that MBT will be imparting the initial training for one week to the employees. The software has been tested and after its successful application in the Bhosari office, it could be used at all the 15 divisional offices from October.