TMC Employs Blockchain Technology For Property Tax Assessments

TMC Employs Blockchain Technology For Property Tax Assessments

Blockchain News News
January 11, 2020 by Editor's Desk
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TMC (The Thane Municipal Corporation) is operating on a pilot blockchain-powered solution for property tax assessment in association with Hyderabad-based Veridoc Global India, as a part of a more significant effort to develop a digital system to engage with residents. The TMC caters to almost 2.5 million residents in Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
TMC

TMC (The Thane Municipal Corporation) is operating on a pilot blockchain-powered solution for property tax assessment in association with Hyderabad-based Veridoc Global India, as a part of a more significant effort to develop a digital system to engage with residents. The TMC caters to almost 2.5 million residents in Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Uniting blockchain technology in property tax documents is assumed to help in quicker approvals and present a single point for data availability.
The one-scan solution is also supposed to speed up the process and make it easier, allowing various stakeholders to check the original document along with current updates. This will serve bank executives, lessees, property buyers, and others.

The blockchain initiative is being initiated through the flagship programs of the ‘Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,’ ‘Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovation’ (AGNIi), Startup India, and InvestIndia.

Blockchain technology is vital in cases where documents have to be verified multiple times in the public domain, stated Sameer Unhale, CEO of Thane Smartcity and Additional Municipal Commissioner, TMC.

“Government data sometimes sits in silos, and this (blockchain solution) can help unify that and ease the administrative overhead as well as reduce processing time for citizen requests and verification time for other officials. The government can move from problem-solving mode to nation-building mode,” He said.

The solution will authenticate any document saved on the blockchain by a QR code, stated Rea Achalkar, CEO of VeriDoc Global India.

Once the information has been updated, an authorized external agency will require to scan the QR code, and the system will draw out the original certificate or document for prompt verification.

Traditionally, this method used to take a few days, needing a visit to the office or a wait for the document to be checked before one could proceed further with a transaction.

The blockchain technology solution caters to an anti-fraud instant document verification system that secures a user can obtain an authentic and accurate document — produced at source and stored in an encrypted setup on the blockchain network.

“The one-scan-away information provider will be ubiquitously sharing initially onboard data with most current updates for the benefit of various stakeholders. With the successful conclusion of the pilot, we expect that the final implementation of the blockchain solution will take approximately two months,” Achalkar said.

Unhale stated that once the property tax blockchain solution is achieved, the corporation will look to move other vital documents like birth certificates and building permits to this system.

“We have to explore this and see how the system adapts to the new technology,” he said. “The city is becoming a very complex system, and we are trying to garner the benefits of new technology to improve the lives of citizens. This isn’t about using technology for the sake of technology,” he said.

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