Property tax payers in the city will be able to pay their taxes on-line from this December. People can also pay their water bills on-line after two months from now, according to Commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation Akshy Sridhar.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, he said that the civic body will issue trade licences on-line on a trial basis from October 2. The trail will go on for two weeks.
Once the system is through, it will stop issuing manual licence. The process of issuing a trade licence starting from applying for licence, paying prescribed fees, uploading relevant documents and photos, approving licence, the identification of the trade through geo tagging, renewal of licence, issuing and cancelling licence will be done on-line. KEONICS has developed software for the purpose.
Property tax fine
The Commissioner said that the corporation has extended the last date for paying property tax without fine for 2020-21 till October 31. Fine will be imposed from November 1.
Central Market
Mr. Sridhar said that the civic body allowed about 30 retail traders who have valid trade licence to do business at the Central Market on Tuesday. Those traders have obtained licence in their names and are doing business themselves without outsourcing it to another trader. The corporation will not allow such traders in the market who do business by obtaining licence in the name of others. The corporation had to re-open the market for the sake of valid retail trade licence holders following an order from the High Court of Karnataka.
He said that the corporation’s Engineering Department has reported that the Central Market building is not safe and the police have reported that re-opening the market will only increase the traffic congestion in the Hampankatta area.
In addition, the Health Department has also not recommended re-opening of the market with a view to preventing the spread of COVID-19. But the corporation had to comply with the High Court order.
Mr. Sridhar said that the new Alake Market in the city will be inaugurated on October 2.