E-Paper
Mohali: Public hassled as glitch in portal holds up property tax payments
Annoyed residents had to return from the Mohali municipal corporation building as they were unable to deposit the tax or even the water and sewerage bills despite their repeated visits on Tuesday and Wednesday
Glitch in the government portal has made it difficult for residents to deposit their property tax, thus causing inconvenience.
Annoyed residents had to return from the Mohali municipal corporation building as they were unable to deposit the tax or even the water and sewerage bills despite their repeated visits on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Notably the government in 2017 had refrained officials from collecting the property tax manually and instead made an online portal. Moreover, since the taxpayers get a 10% rebate if they deposit the property tax within the first six months of the financial year; many people pay online in the given period. After that people have to pay the gross property tax.
The staff at the MC office expressed helplessness due to a non functional online portal https://mseva.lgpunjab.gov.in/
“I am a senior citizen and face difficulty in driving now. I visited the MC office twice to pay property tax but they could not accept money citing that the server was not functional. Government should also keep a provision of manually depositing the property tax as in case of the shut down of the online facility, people can at least pay manually and avoid repeated visits and harassment,” Kulwinder Singh, a visitor among those waiting for the site to work at the MC office said.
AK Arora of Phase-6, Mohali, said that he reached the MC office at 11.30 am to pay the tax and waited till 2.30 pm but the staff could not deposit his property tax online.
Meanwhile, a staffer at the property tax collection office said, “Situation becomes awkward for us too as we have to face the heat of the public in such times. The situation is the same across Punjab at present. We informed the headquarters after which we are being told that up-gradation and maintenance of the portal is underway”.
When asked, Avtar Singh Kalsi , Superintendent, MC Mohali said that best efforts are being made to help the public. “We have been getting complaints but our staff and officials are trying their best to resolve the issue at the earliest. I personally pacified a few and they were given the best possible assistance by the staff. Work will immediately resume once the government portal will be fixed,” Kalsi added.
People can also pay property tax, water and sewerage bills by giving a missed call at 8750975975. They can download receipts and also report and track their complaints.
