more-in The electronic payment facility introduced by the Revenue Department is yet to turn popular in the district as most land tax payers still follow the conventional method of direct payment by visiting village offices. Department officials say that the reluctance on the part of the people to migrate to the new technology is doubling their workload at village offices and delaying other crucial revenue-related work. Though the e-payment facility is now available in most of the 118 village offices in Kozhikode district, only a miniscule percentage of people use the service, and that too through Akshaya centres. It happens despite the availability of a user-friendly portal. New users can sign up freely with www.revenue-kerala.gov.in and create their individual user IDs and passwords for quick payments. The portal also generates digital receipts instantly that can be saved for future use. According to Revenue Department officials, the facility is unavailable only in some hill-side village offices where unsurveyed land continues to be an obstacle for its implementation. For the rest who hold a valid thandaper number, the remittance can be made easily through online banking. Now, the services of 10 nationalised banks are available on the portal to complete the online payment. A village officer under the Thamarassery taluk says that people’s reluctance to make electronic payment is mainly visible in the rural areas of Kozhikode where online transactions are found unpopular owing to various reasons. The lack of knowledge about e-services and the fear to try online banking options can be the reasons, he adds. The officer also points out that the number of online land tax payments is, however, satisfactory within the limits of urban village offices like Kacheri, Kasaba, and Puthiyangadi, where citizens have been at least trying to use the new technology. The creation of backlog is an issue in some offices, which can be settled soon with the completion of the ongoing computerisation drive in the district, he says. Meanwhile, some urban residents who use the online service to pay land tax say that the facility caters only for those having accounts in 10 nationalised banks. No debit or credit card payment facility has been added to the portal that actually limits its scope among a majority of aspiring users, they said.

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