TAX RECOVERY MADE EASY

Notified area authorities have been looking at urbanisation as an opportunity, as our Prime Minister has urged, particularly in terms of tax collection. However, the manual tax assessment and collection process made it an exacting task which necessitated a tremendous amount of effort and time. Furthermore, notified area authorities began to notice several concerns that, if left untreated, might hinder their objective to collect taxes fairly. Notified areas also became aware that different government institutions find relevance in their data now more than ever. This combination of circumstances prompted notified area authorities to seek reform. Notified area authorities attempted to look beyond the conventional approach of collecting taxes. They required a solution that would secure and document taxes in an equitable manner. They were searching for a transparent and standardized recovery system; a system that a number of different notified area authorities could put to use on their database.

Modern technology, especially smart devices, connect people with their surrounding areas. Citizens should be offered easily accessible services to keep them informed and their grievances should be taken seriously. City planners often rely on theoretical concepts and best practices in other cities, and want to adopt them without taking into account the unique attributes of their own cities and the peoples’ needs. They expect public participation via outdated procedures like public gatherings and filling forms. This can be prevented by enabling connected citizens to interact with the administration and have a say in city planning. We will then have more liveable smart cities.

The Notified Area Authorities’ new-look property tax portal built by Symbiosis automates dynamic and extensive tax assessment. “We have one algorithm”, explains Tejal Tailor, the proprietor of Symbiosis Systems & Services. “That algorithm is based the rules pertaining to tax assessment and collection, and secures authorities and responsibilities of all the stakeholders in accordance with those rules. This can be accessible to notified areas in various manners such as calculation and accounting of taxes as well as the creation of management information system”. In addition, Symbiosis has also made sure that a myriad of user scenarios is accommodated. The steadfast team of Symbiosis enhanced the user satisfaction of their system by providing a dashboard that allows the citizens as well as notified area offices to access details of multiple properties supplemented in their account which not only eased their taxation process but also transformed how they interacted with and used technology. Subsequently, Symbiosis provided the notified area authorities with the solution for the increased necessity for the same database in a number of other government institutions, such as GIDC. The cloud-based recovery system allows the data to be integrated with government and non-government entities making it more efficient for all parties involved in the tax collection process. This recovery system is now in place in 17 notified area authorities, enabling 53,000 industries, merchants, and families to pay taxes and other payments with ease. Symbiosis is honoured to collaborate with the Government of Gujarat and strives to form partnerships with many divisions to enhance the country's digital transformation.