Mira-Bhayandar: With less than three months remaining for the final quarter of the current fiscal (2023-24) to end on March 31, the recently procured electronic point of sale (e-PoS) devices is proving to be a boon for the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) which faces a daunting task of recovering property tax arrears amounting more than ₹84.31 crore to meet its budgetary target.
Provided free-of-cost by Bank of Baroda in November, last year, the PoS machines have been linked with the main data server of the MBMC and payments made by citizens are reflected instantly.
Property tax collections contribute lion's share in MBMC revenue
One of the major sources of revenue generation, property tax collections contribute a lion’s share in the annual budgets. Although collections amounting to ₹280 crore had been projected for the current fiscal, the MBMC anticipates ₹232.72 crores owing to the presence of double and ghost entries in the tax registry. With just a little over ₹148.40 crore in its property tax kitty till 2, January, 2024, the MBMC has to mop-up arrears amounting ₹84.31 crore in the remaining three months. While ₹55.11 crore was received from 99,360 payers through various online platforms, over 1.52 lakh payers contributed ₹93.29 crore by opting for offline payments.
Now pay property tax at your doorstep
“The PoS devices have proved to be of immense help by boosting the online payment figures by nearly 15 to 20 percent. While 194 properties owned by chronic defaulters have been sealed, a list of major defaulters has been prepared and these taxpayers will face legal action if they fail to clear their due.” said head of tax department, Chandrakant Borse. Apart from a host of benefits like- instant generation of receipts via messages sent on registered mobile number (RMN) tagged with download links, dynamic Quick Response (QR) code to pay their taxes from bank accounts or digital wallets, swipe card option and also cheque acceptance on the system, the PoS enable citizens to easily pay property taxes at their doorstep.
As per the MBMC registry, the total number of taxpayers ( commercial and residential) is currently pegged at 3,58,030 out of which 2,52,208 have cleared their dues even as 1,05,822 are yet to respond to bills and notices issued by the tax department.
