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Tvm: Information Kerala Mission (IKM), the flagship e-Governance programme of the Kerala Government, has launched e-Payment Services for Local Self Government (LSG) bodies. The service was launched today by Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Adv. K Chandrika, at a function held as part of the ‘Media Workshop on IT enabled Local Governance: Kerala Experience’, organised by IKM.

With this launch, the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation becomes the first local government in Kerala to have such a service using which one can make anytime anywhere online payment of taxes to Corporations, Municipality or Panchayats. As of now only Property Tax can be paid but the facility to pay other dues like Professional Tax would also be added soon.

Inaugurating the service, Adv. K Chandrika said, “This facility would be a boon to the large expatriate population from Kerala who has a house or property here who can make the payment from anywhere in the world. This would also increase the revenue for the Corporation while reducing the work load of the employees and the rush in LSGs”.

Prof. M.K. Prasad, Executive Chairman & Director, IKM said, “This system has the unique advantage that it can be adopted by any local government without any more work to be done, other than finalising their backend databases, for which software is already provided by IKM. In the next phase, IKM plans to launch the provision of getting ‘Ownership Certificates’ of properties online.” 

The e-payment facility can be accessed through the Sanchaya website and also from the websites of the respective local governments by clicking on the ‘Online Payment’ link. One can also register for email and SMS alerts. The facility has been set up by IKM with in-house expertise, utilising the facilities of State e-Governance Data Centre and e-Payment gateway. The payment can be made using Credit / Debit Cards and Net banking facilities. IKM has tied up with about 40 Banks now and more are in the offing. There will be a nominal transaction charge which would have to be met by the payer.

Anil Philip
Kerala IT News