New online property tax format throws up glitches, residents hassled

At a time when the three municipal corporations in the city are facing a financial crunch and are seeking to boost their revenues with property taxes, residents

At a time when the three municipal corporations in the city are facing a financial crunch and are seeking to boost their revenues with property taxes, residents complained that the new version of the online format to fill the tax details is not user-friendly and that there were issues in accessing and submitting forms to pay the tax.

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Residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) across Delhi have raised the issue with the corporations and urged them to simplify the process and provide assistance to house owners, especially senior citizens, who have been facing the most difficulties. Unlike every year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the corporations are unable to set up facilitation camps to help those without internet connectivity or smartphones.

According to civic officials, the property tax websites of the corporations -- South, North and East --- have been updated last month and new features were introduced. The sites were under construction until at least May 20. Every year, most house owners deposit the property tax between April 1 and June 30, which is the window when they are entitled to get a 15% rebate on the total amount.

From errors in signing up to wiping out previous records of the property, the issues raised by residents are many. Atul Goyal, president, URJA (United Residents Joint Action), an umbrella body of 2,500 RWAs, said the association has written to the corporations to fix the glitches. “There are multiple errors showing up such as not allowing one to register or access the form. Also, the new system does not include all modes of payment,” Goyal said.

He added that the site also makes it mandatory to submit banking details for payment. In the previous format, there was an option to generate a receipt with which one could pay the tax by cheque.

Also, registering your phone number and email address are now prerequisites to access the form. For many senior citizens, this has become an issue.

“Until last year, a civic official would come home to help us with filling up the form. Most of the elderly people do not have email addresses. Many live alone while their children are abroad and nobody is there to help them with online activities. Also, there are network issues and sometimes, the OTP doesn’t get generated,” Ashok Prabhakar (80), president, Malviya Nagar senior citizens forum, said.

Rajiv Kakria, member, Greater Kailash-1 RWA, said, “Though I was able to access the website, it was only after four days that I could submit the form. However, one of the major issues is that except for the previous payment details, the rest of the history of my property dating back to the 1960s, the renovations and all other such details till date, have been wiped out.”

Radha Krishan, joint assessor and collector, south corporation, said with the help of the central government, a new website has been developed to help taxpayers in the long-run. So far, there was no uniformity in the format and people could access the tax details through multiple ways.“However, because of the newly developed format, users are facing some glitches. We are resolving these and offering help to residents on our zonal helplines on weekends. The system will soon be made error-free,” he said.

A senior north corporation official said hey are going to release a video, explaining to users step by step how to access the form. Besides, the civic body also plans to launch a helpline to assist people with the procedure. “The portal is being made into a single-window system from where users will be able to avail of other services such as getting licences of shops, renewals, etc., using the same property ID.”