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The Village Office plays a stellar role in the lives of Keralites. It is the arm of the Government that reaches out to people. For most of the people Government begins and ends with the Village Office. The services rendered there are at once basic and extensive. People do not require anything more from the Government in their normal lives.
If we hold title to land it is mandatory that land tax as per law is paid every year. Failure to remit the tax bars us from enjoying facilities extended by the Government. In the event of default Government has the right to take over the land.
I make a trip to the Village office every year to remit the tax. I recount my experience this year.
I reached the office at 10 A.M. No one was there. As I waited I observed that there were a few others who were playing the waiting game. The officials arrived at the office after some time. All of us went in. There was a queue. The official advised the individual at the head of the queue that he would have to wait if had come to remit the tax. Then he took the cell phone and rang up some one. We could hear him conveying to the person at the other end to come to the office and do a cleaning up job in the office. He remarked to the other official in the office that unless the job was outsourced the office would never be clean.
The official disposed off the person at the head of the queue quickly, advising him that title to the property would be recorded only after 3.00 P.M. He looked at me. I showed him the receipts for the previous year and said that I had come to remit tax for current year. He said, “You have six receipts. It is a big job. Hand it to the official sitting next.”
I did not dare to tell him that it was the very same official who had directed me to present my case to him. It was back to square one. The official who had directed me elsewhere looked at me as I stood before him. “You have to hand it to the lady standing behind you.”
I turned around, saw the lady and handed over the receipts. She made a search, located the registers and placed the receipts and the registers on the official’s table. Then she repeated the procedure for the next person. The register was placed on top of the registers that contained my receipts. I did not object as objections would only delay the procedure and the officials might even stop the day’s collection stating that they faced a heavy workload. I recalled the experience the previous year. I had to trek it to the office three days in succession for the simple job. The first day the officials, as the serpentine queue reached midway, announced that they were stopping the collection for the day since they had other important work to attend to. We were advised to come the next day. The next day when I went there the officials were not there. We gathered that they had all gone to the collectorate to remit cash and there would be no collection on that day. Though I had to wait two hours in the queue I was lucky the third time.
Suddenly the official who had turned me back had a change of heart. “Give me a register. I will do some work,” he said. I felt unlucky as I found him taking the register on top. In the mean time I saw him reversing his earlier stance of attending to the recording of the title for another applicant. I thought the rules were dynamic at that office. One man was turned away and the other was entertained.
A Village Office always makes you learn and practice patience. I waited. I was gleeful when the official finally took hold of my receipts. He started writing. He opened the folio and compared the data in the previous year’s receipt with the data in the folio. He wrote out a receipt for the tax and returned the old receipt to me. He recorded some data on one folio. The collection of tax for the year was recorded in another folio. The process was repeated five times as I had six receipts with me altogether. The receipts I had with me belonged to different people. I was entrusted the job since the others did not have the time to squander. Finally I managed to extricate myself from the office with current year’s tax paid receipts.
While the official was going through the laborious process I felt it was high time the Village Offices were computerized in the State of Kerala. It would assist the officials efficiently carry out their functions. The State stands to gain too as it would dramatically improve the flow of funds to the exchequer that is always starved of funds for developmental and day to day expenditure. The productivity of the people also will improve as their turn around time is shortened enabling them conserve precious time for important activities.
As I had set apart the day for payment of dues to the Government and local bodies, I went over to the office of the local body to pay tax on the house. I had the shock of my life when the lady finished the job and handed me the receipt within a minute. She said," The office is computerized."
If we hold title to land it is mandatory that land tax as per law is paid every year. Failure to remit the tax bars us from enjoying facilities extended by the Government. In the event of default Government has the right to take over the land.
I make a trip to the Village office every year to remit the tax. I recount my experience this year.
I reached the office at 10 A.M. No one was there. As I waited I observed that there were a few others who were playing the waiting game. The officials arrived at the office after some time. All of us went in. There was a queue. The official advised the individual at the head of the queue that he would have to wait if had come to remit the tax. Then he took the cell phone and rang up some one. We could hear him conveying to the person at the other end to come to the office and do a cleaning up job in the office. He remarked to the other official in the office that unless the job was outsourced the office would never be clean.
The official disposed off the person at the head of the queue quickly, advising him that title to the property would be recorded only after 3.00 P.M. He looked at me. I showed him the receipts for the previous year and said that I had come to remit tax for current year. He said, “You have six receipts. It is a big job. Hand it to the official sitting next.”
I did not dare to tell him that it was the very same official who had directed me to present my case to him. It was back to square one. The official who had directed me elsewhere looked at me as I stood before him. “You have to hand it to the lady standing behind you.”
I turned around, saw the lady and handed over the receipts. She made a search, located the registers and placed the receipts and the registers on the official’s table. Then she repeated the procedure for the next person. The register was placed on top of the registers that contained my receipts. I did not object as objections would only delay the procedure and the officials might even stop the day’s collection stating that they faced a heavy workload. I recalled the experience the previous year. I had to trek it to the office three days in succession for the simple job. The first day the officials, as the serpentine queue reached midway, announced that they were stopping the collection for the day since they had other important work to attend to. We were advised to come the next day. The next day when I went there the officials were not there. We gathered that they had all gone to the collectorate to remit cash and there would be no collection on that day. Though I had to wait two hours in the queue I was lucky the third time.
Suddenly the official who had turned me back had a change of heart. “Give me a register. I will do some work,” he said. I felt unlucky as I found him taking the register on top. In the mean time I saw him reversing his earlier stance of attending to the recording of the title for another applicant. I thought the rules were dynamic at that office. One man was turned away and the other was entertained.
A Village Office always makes you learn and practice patience. I waited. I was gleeful when the official finally took hold of my receipts. He started writing. He opened the folio and compared the data in the previous year’s receipt with the data in the folio. He wrote out a receipt for the tax and returned the old receipt to me. He recorded some data on one folio. The collection of tax for the year was recorded in another folio. The process was repeated five times as I had six receipts with me altogether. The receipts I had with me belonged to different people. I was entrusted the job since the others did not have the time to squander. Finally I managed to extricate myself from the office with current year’s tax paid receipts.
While the official was going through the laborious process I felt it was high time the Village Offices were computerized in the State of Kerala. It would assist the officials efficiently carry out their functions. The State stands to gain too as it would dramatically improve the flow of funds to the exchequer that is always starved of funds for developmental and day to day expenditure. The productivity of the people also will improve as their turn around time is shortened enabling them conserve precious time for important activities.
As I had set apart the day for payment of dues to the Government and local bodies, I went over to the office of the local body to pay tax on the house. I had the shock of my life when the lady finished the job and handed me the receipt within a minute. She said," The office is computerized."
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