CMC goes online for rates collection

By Ranil Wijayapala

The Colombo Municipal Council, the biggest local government body in the country which earns over Rs. three billion as its annual assessment rates for the council from around 150,000 city properties is usually a very busy place. The queues at the Town Hall building gets long when the deadlines for the payment of rate money gets closer compelling the people to wait in queues for hours to pay their rate money, trade taxes, lease and license fee for the council.

The launch of the e service at Colombo Municipal Council for tax payments jointly organised by CMC and the Information Communication and Technology Agency (ICTA) was held last week. Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister A.L.M. Athaullah, Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil and Chief Executive Officer, ICTA, Reshan Devapura look on . Pic: A. Maduraveeran, Colombo North Gr. Cor.

The Colombo Municipal Council with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ITCA) of Sri Lanka has come forward to make this process an easy one for the people without waiting hours in queues at Town Hall after closing their business places and stopping their daily work.

According to Municipal Treasurer the CMC along with the ICTA launched the e-service system on January 8, enabling thousands of rate payers to make their payments to the CMC online after entering to the Colombo Municipal Council website www.cmc.lk to make their payments.

The Colombo Municipal Council launched its AS 400 computer system for the payment of rates to the Council in the year 2000 at the Town Hall premises while facilitating the people to make their payments via all the branches People's Bank and Bank of Ceylon and the customers of the Commercial Bank to make their payments online.

"Despite the launch of these facilities people still tend to visit the Town Hall since they do not receive a receipt for their payments when they make their payments through banks. Making payments at the Town Hall has become time consuming effort for the people and the CMC wanted to further ease this process", Chitrapala said.

As a solution ICTA of Sri Lanka proposed to the CMC to start the e-service at the Colombo Municipal Council to facilitate the online payment system for the rate payers.

Accordingly ICTA agreed to provide the required software amounting to cost Rs.30 million in two stages and the CMC to purchase required computers at a cost of Rs. five million and the the Colombo Municipal Council and the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka signed the relevant MoU on December 5 last year to enable Colombo City tax payers to pay several categories of CMC taxes online.

Making this project a reality the CMC launched its e-service on January 8 with the participation of Provincial Council and Local Government Minister A.L.M. Athaullah and CMC officials targeting nearly 500,000 population in the city and 150,000 property owners paying rate money.

With the launch of facility those who are paying rates payments, trade taxes, taxes on businesses, market rental, house rental, shops and boutiques rental and hawkers' rental. Accordingly CMC tax payments which do not require any supplementary documents / manual interventions could now pay their taxes online after providing the CMC account number and the relevant street name and assessment number.

"Through this system people can pay their rate money through online and obtain a receipt for that payment via emails. This also facilitate the customers to make their payments through dialogue easy cash system", Chitrapala said.

"The biggest advantage of this e-service is saving the precious time of the people as they can make their payments without coming to Town Hall. They will also get discounts for their payments as this system enables them to pay taxes on time", he said. People can make use of the Visa card, Master card, American express card to make their payments online. The modus operandi is simple and includes logging in and entering the payment type http://www.eservice.cmc.lk/cmc-citizen-web/Payments/OnlinePayments.

The system will facilitate 150,000 property owners who pay rates for the council, 18,000 who pay trade taxes, 1,000 people paying business taxes, 2,250 persons paying market rental, 200 people paying shops and boutique rentals and another 2,500 people paying hawkers rentals. According to the Municipal Treasurer, apart from making payments they also can check the balance payments and the discounts they enjoy for their payments, fines for late payments through online.

"This is a very trustworthy payment system as it issues paid receipt for the customers via email when they make their payments online. The CMC also can compare the checks and balances in that account after entering into those accounts easily", he said.

The CMC is also planning to make use of this system to send assessment notices, reminders about the trade taxes once the systems are further updated at the next stages of the project. "At the next stage we are planning to issue non-vesting certificate and ownership certificate after affiliating the system with the Assessment Department", he said. One specific advantage of this project is that people can make their payments from anywhere in the world without sending their agents to the Council as third parties.

"I usually get inquiries from the expatriate community about the payment of rates for their properties in the city. This will facilitate them to make their payments easy for them irrespective of the country they live at present", he said. "With the introduction of this system, the CMC also can save a huge sum of administrative expenses as we can reduce the number of people coming to the Town Hall for making their payments", he said.

Commenting on the facility, ICTA Re-engineering Government Program Director Wasantha Deshapriya said that the online payment facility will greatly benefit the 500,000-strong CMC population comprising 150,000 active CMC tax payers.

"All the proposed functions will be available to be accessed as a service of the www.srilanka.lk portal.

The supported languages will be Sinhala, Tamil and English", Deshapriya pointed out.

"This is yet another step forward in making the dividends of ICT accrue to the people as expressed in the 'Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future' policy statement of the Government", Deshapriya said.

Colombo Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil, Local Government and Provincial Council Ministry Secretary R.A.A.K. Ranawake, Municipal Commissioner Badrani Jayawardhana, and ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura also participated at the launching ceremony of the e-service.