Amritsar: Municipal Corporation’s revenue hit as mSeva portal faces glitches

Amritsar, July 7

The revenue collection of various departments of the municipal corporation is badly hit due to technical flaws in mSeva portal of the Department of Local Government, Punjab.

There are some technical issues in the mSeva portal. We have written to the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company in this connection. Technical glitches in the portal would be rectified in the coming days. — Officials, Municipal Corporation

Residents are facing technical issues while paying taxes, bills and fee on the mSeva portal. Due to slow server issue, receipts of water-sewerage, property tax or other payments are not generated. After failed online attempts, residents visit the Citizen Facilitation Centre and demand hard copy of receipts, but they face the same issue on counters too. However, the centre staff is also not able to provide receipts to residents.

Residents claimed that after making an online payment, money gets deducted from their bank accounts, but they do not get the receipt.

Except the MTP wing of the Corporation, all other departments are far behind in meeting their revenue targets. The Property Tax Department has an annual target of Rs 50 crore, but has collected only Rs 3.25 crore during the current fiscal. Rent and sales tax collection has also witnessed a dip. The licensing wing is far behind in achieving its revenue target. Similarly, the conservancy tax collection has come also down.

The MC had constituted Amritsar Urban Water and Wastewater Management Limited to speed up the recovery of water and sewerage bills. But water and sewerage bills of any commercial unit in the city are not being generated. The present software of the portal is not yet ready for the commercial billing. The old arrears of the municipal water and sewerage bills running into crores of rupees is also yet to be generated. Earlier, the MC recovered Rs 55 crores against water-sewerage bills.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the MC said there were some technical issues in the mSeva portal. Officials said they had written to the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC) in this connection. Technical glitches in the portal would be rectified in the coming days, they added.