Overview
The current version (V1.0) of the Automated Bill Generation System, which has been branded as Bill Genie provides the following capabilities
- Automatically generate a bill based on a set of calendar triggers through a batch process.
- Group, Merge and Download bills for field distribution
- Send notifications to citizens for pending bills with due dates
Overview
Bill Genie is an automated bill generation system developed on the DIGIT platform for enabling DIGIT platform. It enables citizens to pay property tax in a simple, smooth and transparent Property Tax payment process for citizens.
For propA ‘Self-assessment’ system based on ‘trust and verify’ principle was introduced in 157 ULBs. In this system, citizens shared the details of their property, and the tax calculation was done using the ARV methodology for the tax collection period. A Bill was generated for the Property tax payable and the citizen made the payment to the ULB. This payment created a Property tax record in the system and a unique Property Tax ID is assigned to the property. This ‘Self-assessment’ system has helped to bring 4,43,700 into the property tax record system in DIGIT in a span of 10 months. Additionally ~3,00,000 have been migrated from other IT systems to DIGIT.
Highlights
- Apply for provisional (pre-construction) and new (post-construction) Fire NOC
- Apply for Fire NOC for single as well as multiple buildings
- Option to adopt different mechanisms for NOC fee calculation based on multiple parameters
- Provision to select minimum fees according to building usage type and subtype
- Provision for multiple ULB employee roles such as document verifier, field inspector, approver, etc. and workflows for approval
- Provision for ULB employees to search for records based on various criteria such as Fire NOC application number, the status of the application, from and to date, etc.
- Interactive dashboard displaying Fire NOC application statistics with respect to a particular role in the workflow. This feature is helpful to manage worklist of the Fire NOC applications
- Provision to view the application history for a Fire NOC for better transparency about the system towards citizens and ULB employees
- ULBs can set SLAs according to the different stages of the Fire NOC application. The overall process in the system is helpful to deliver timely services to the citizen as well as to measure the performance of ULB employees
- Fire NOC application can be integrated with other application like Building Plan Approval, Property registry, etc.
- Fire NOC application is built according to ontology given in National Building Code for Building usage types and subtypes
Release Features
Fire NOC
manner.
It is possible for the ULB employees to set calendar triggers to generate bills for the amount of property tax payable. This allows the ULB to share the bills with citizens in advance. Citizens review their bill and pay it online using the payment link shared in the bill. Citizens get email and SMS notifications for pending property tax dues as reminders on or before the due date. Since the bills are provided in advance, citizens get lead time to plan for the finances to pay their tax.The application also allows the ULB to group, merge and download bills for field distribution.
The Bill Genie application makes it effortless for citizens who do not have any changes in their property records, to pay for the services consumed. This layer of citizens is a significant number, allowing ULBs to increase revenue by moving away from “citizen-initiated” to “ULB-initiated” collection drives.
Highlights
- A batch process executes automatic generation of property tax bills based on a set of calendar triggers
- Option to group, merge and download property tax bills for field distribution
- Provision to send email and SMS reminder alerts to citizens for pending bills on or before the due dates so that they can plan or take action
Application Workflow
The following diagram depicts the application workflow.
Release Features
Key Feature |
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States can configure the fee calculation mechanism for a Fire NOC application which is applicable to across ULBs
ULBs can define the rate for fees collected and charges levied for each Fire NOC application. ULBs have a choice to collect fees either as a flat, fixed amount or based on a Unit of Measurement (UoM), building usage, with or without charge slabs, etc. They can also set a minimum charge per applicant.
ULBs can configure notification, messages and alert triggers as well as the content for each notification to be sent to various stakeholders like Citizen, Field Inspector, Document Verifier, etc.
The application addresses the need for a flexible workflow model for Fire NOC applications. It assigns the tasks at each stage in the workflow of the application form request to individual employees instead of groups. As a result, it is possible to send the form back to an immediately previous state and refer the form for an opinion from other users, as per roles in the workflow.
The application allows users to capture comments and documents for roles in the workflow while processing the NOC application request.
The application has a dashboard with statistics showing the number and status of NOC application requests for a given workflow role. This helps manage the task worklist among employees.
The application provides a view of the NOC request history making the process and progress transparent to all stakeholders.
Description | |
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Generate Property Tax Bills Automatically | The Bill Genie application generates property tax bills automatically for properties registered in the property tax system. The application executes this as a batch process from the backend based on financial year and calendar dates as triggers. |
Grouping of Property Tax Bills | The ULB employees can group property tax bills based on locality and financial year, leading to an improvement in the efficiency of on-ground distribution of bills. |
Merge, Download and Print Property Tax Bills | After the bills are generated, ULB employees can download and print bills in batches by merging them. |
Notification to citizens | The Bill Genie application has an option to send SMS and email reminders to the citizens with the due date and tax amount to be paid. These notifications help citizens plan their finances to pay property tax. |
Future Release Features
The following features are planned for the next release of the Bill Genie application :
- The citizen notification will include the link to pay property tax and a link to download the payment receipt after payment of tax
- A user interface for citizens to search and pay property tax
- A user interface for ULB employees to generate property tax bills
- Availability of triggers for custom notifications to citizens