E-governance grows in Nagaland

Staff Reporter DIMAPUR, SEPTEMBER 10 THE state government has taken the step towards e-governance and the successful implementation of this ambitious goal. The introduction of e-services into the curriculum of the State administration is fairly new. But the ‘good news’ is that, there is a significant progress seen in the increasing number of people using the services.Updating on the usage of this medium, the department of Taxes disclosed a healthy Tax revenue figure of Rs 48.24 crore which was collected online after the introduction of e-services. Of this, Rs 28 crore was collected during this financial year. A total of 10,716 TaxSoft online registrations were registered out of which 6630 comes under VAT registration and 4055 under CST registration. These facts were stated by the Commissioner of Taxes, Asangba Chuba Ao during the inaugural programme of the four-day awareness campaign on e-services for Dimapur district which began today at Hotel Saramati. The said awareness campaign is being organized by the State Taxes department as a run-up to the 50 years statehood celebration which falls latter part of this year. Tax officials said the implementation of e-services into its administrative system was one of the biggest initiatives undertaken by the department during the last 49 years. The Parliamentary Secretary of Taxes, IT, Technical Education, Science & Technology, Tovihoto Ayemi, who graced the inaugural programme as the chief guest, congratulated the officials and staff of Taxes department for comprehensively contributing towards the implementation of e-governance in the State. He lauded the department for moving in the right direction to facilitate transparent and efficient tax administration, and in the process becoming one of the first departments in the State to provide e-services to the citizens and its valued tax payers. “Through the support from the Government of India under the MMP-CT project, our state has also been able to develop requisite infrastructure and capabilities to provide tax payers with e-services, which is not only user friendly but also saves time and energy,” Ayemi said adding that all the other states in the country are also providing services to their payers through this mode. “Now with the introduction and implementation of the online services, I believe tax payers, especially businessmen, would be able to save time, money and energy as compared to the present manual system,” he added. The Parliamentary Secretary of Taxes was more than happy to state that the concerned department has over the years maintained its position as the biggest contributor to the state’s internal revenue. He informed that 60% of the internal revenue was generated by this department in 2012-2013. On this note, Ayemi on behalf of the State government thanked the ‘valued tax payers’ for taking up the challenges of providing better market to the general public and meanwhile collecting tax on behalf of the government and contributing to the state exchequer. The MLA who is a first timer in the Assembly representing Dimapur-I A/C also stressed on the need to augment the internal revenue of the State. “The amount of financial assistance that we receive from the centre depends to some degree on the internal revenue generated from within the State. So the more revenue we collect, the more assistance we are likely to get,” Ayemi stated adding that this in turn will help the internal economy which will naturally be beneficial to the business community as well. He said he would provide the support and assistance for the success of e-governance to encourage tax payers. Towards this end, he also sought the support, cooperation and participation of every citizen, especially the business community to make our State an ideal business destination for traders, consumers and investors alike. The chief guest also formally released the Training CDs for the awareness campaign. The awareness campaign on e-services for Kohima and Mokokchung districts are scheduled on September 17 and 19 respectively. While for other districts, it has been scheduled on September 20 at the office of the respective Superintendent of Taxes.