Pay property tax at click of a mouse

NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is now ready with the software which will allow people to make payment of property tax online. This brand new portal will be available from Sunday onwards.

‘‘The webiste is in place and people can log on to the new portal — www.mcdpropertytax.in — and file their property tax returns online starting from Sunday,’’ said assessor and collector, MCD A K Ambasht.

If the system — put in place through a software prepared by E-Governance Foundation — works then those long queues, complicated property tax forms and jostling for space at disorganised MCD counters in the heat will become history this summer.

Under the new system, the tax payer would simply go to the web link where an introductory note on the MCD property tax information system (MCD-PTIS) lists the procedure. From filling the PTR form, calculating the tax for 2007-08, printing a copy of the form to making payment online, the software has it all.

To prevent erroneous calculations, the software does it for you and even identifies the category and ward your colony falls in under the unit area system. All that needs to be done is keying in basic data like name, address, property details — Floor Area Ratio — and ownership details.

The software will do the rest and will generate a unique identity number which is the receipt. The software also automatically calculates the 15% rebate that is given as an incentive to all those who file their PTRs in the first quarter that ends on June 30.

Tax payers will be able to make payment by cheque. People can also pay by cash at any UTI Bank branch or at the MCD’s customer service bureaus. One can even pay online using the credit card. ‘‘The MCD has tied up with UTI Bank and is in the process of tying up with State Bank of India for online payments through credit card. People will be able to use the UTI online payment facility in a couple of days,’’ Ambasht said.

Meanwhile, the MCD citizen service bureaus in different areas will provide assistance to fill the PTR forms online to all those who have no access to internet.

The MCD hopes to create a database of all the property tax payers, using this system, which will assist in checking defaulters in the future, officials pointed. The MCD has put in place digitised database of 5 lakh odd properties based on PTRs filed by tax payers in 2006-07.

Taking a cue from the online registration of shops that concluded in keeping with the Supreme Court’s directions on January 15, the MCD had decided to make property tax payment online from the new financial year.

Ever since the unit area system of property tax collection came into existence in 2004, the MCD has brought out a new property tax return form every year landing the corporation in controversies over its failure to stabilise the new system and has left tax payer in confusion. The online system being introduced is yet another attempt to bring in some order.

ambika.pandit@timesgroup.com