Last year (2009) India’s silicon capital, garden city, I mean Bangalore (very few trees remaining) started accepting property tax on the internet. Delhi launched a similar effort well before Bangalore.
It would be interesting to know from BBMP how many are using the internet to pay their property taxes. The process is very smooth and my observations are,
- The govt has a separate site for the Corporation & property tax payment (sabbmp.com). I guess separate teams manage each of these sites.
- One needs to enter just their property id to extract the details, I think they need to ask for property id & another number to generate the property tax application. Else people can be snooping around by just changing the property id and they will have access to all details. Huge privacy issue.
- Usually, the details to be filled in the form would be the same as the previous year. The system fills everything for you. A huge convenience for citizens.
- After entering the credit card number, PIN etc I got an error message, so I gave up thinking the process failed. But I received an instant SMS which had the confirmation details.
- The site has a facility to “reprint” the application and payment receipt. Very good thinking. I made instant use of it.
- The site is not very browser independent. For e.g. printing of payment receipt works better in IE than Firefox. Bad
Paying online eliminates the need of visiting the local BBMP office. It is reasonable to assume each of these offices is ill-equipped. One had to spend a good 1-2 hours to complete the process of paying property tax. This also eliminates the need to pay any bribes.
Also see,
Raghavan alias Saravanan M says
Hi Mahesh,
That was an excellent post and I found it very useful :). Thanks to Google for having listed your site at first on the results.
However, I do have a doubt on the “property id and another number” as what you had mentioned. What exactly are those and where can I get it from?
Frankly, this is the very first time I am attempting to pay online and till now I am used to pay through the BBMP counters. Moreover, I had NOT looked at the receipts in detail except the name, address, amount and the duration for which the tax is being paid.
Can I have the propety Id in the previous year’s receipt itself OR should I get it from someone/elsewhere?
Thanks,
Raghavan alias Saravanan M.
Sidhima Shekhawat says
Can you tell me how to obtain the property ID number (PIN)? I dont know my PIN.
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!