Kakinada: Despite dreaming of making the city digital, the Kakinada Municipal Corporation has failed to introduce cashless transactions or online transactions for the residents. The KMC still takes cash for property and water tax payments and for the host of other services that it offers to the residents.
Though online transactions were available, according to KMC officials, the payments should be made through only one particular bank, that too, non-nationalised bank. Though KMC officials are conducting repeated awareness camps to promote cashless transactions, the KMC does not have any swiping machine at the payment counters.
The corporation has to collect nearly Rs 26 crore from property owners in the city every year — and the expectation is that it will get more this year. When the KMC accepted demonetised notes up to November 24, it earned more than Rs 1 crore. The KMC is collecting interest rate of '2 per month on tax payers who delay or payments.
Officials said cashless transactions would be introduced soon. “The KMC should first set right its office by installing card swipe machines and expedite online transactions. Then it should go to people to promote cashless transactions. Otherwise, there is no meaning for their programmes,'' said former councillor Dusarlapudi Ramana Raju.
The civic body, meanwhile, launched two-day an awareness programme on cashless transactionsin its 50 divisions on Thursday. Bankers, officials and students participated in the meeting and explained the methods to use debit, RuPay and credit cards.
KMC additional commissioner S. Govind Swamy said 1,082 new accounts were opened and RuPay cards issued to 655 customers. He said 250 deactivated accounts were revived, and officials accepted 2,000 applications to reactivate inactive accounts in various banks.
