IT -- State to follow in AP's footsteps

IT -- State to follow in AP's footsteps
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, FEB 9: Following in the footsteps of Andhra Pradesh, the Maharashtra government is planning a major e-governance initiative. As part of this, it plans to connect 10,000 offices with 300 treasuries and sub treasuries for on-line billing processing and auditing. The government would like to implement the concept of paperless office and connect it with e-mail and internet.

Announcing this at a Maharashtra Economic Development Council meeting here today, State Finance Minister Jayant Patil said in the first phase 3,000 government offices will be connected in the next three months. The state government is also working on a new tourism policy which would be announced in the next few days.

On IT initiative, he said the government would provide a complete back-up with optical fibre up to taluka level. He had earlier announced his intention to step up the infotech plan at a Nasscom meeting held in Mumbai recently. Besides, the traders will be able to file their returns on-line from next year, adding thatthere are 4,65,000 sales tax assessees who file 4 million returns every year. He informed that in addition to the computerisation of 1,500 sales tax offices, attempt will be made to connect it with banks in a time-bound manner. A new concept of sales tax nakas will be introduced shortly in a bid to further simplify the procedure which would help to increase the sales tax collection substantially in the state, he said.

The government has so far developed 50 important applications including the one relating to registration of deeds, stamp duty, works management and tendering.