Now tax collection is being done through UPI in Gram Panchayats
Raipur 12 May 2025: Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh has emerged as a new example. It has become the first district in the state where tax and fees in Gram Panchayats are now being paid through digital medium i.e. UPI. Villagers are now easily making payments like property tax, market fee, water tax and sanitation tax from their mobile phones.
Raigarh district has given a new direction to rural governance by taking the digital payment system to the villages. UPI based tax collection system has been implemented in all 549 gram panchayats of the district. UPI QR codes have been installed in panchayat buildings and public places, so that villagers are able to pay their taxes sitting at home. This system not only promoted transparency, but it has also significantly increased the income of panchayats. The then Collector Goyal gave a detailed presentation of this innovative model in front of the screening committee of the Prime Minister’s Award on 12 March 2025. He said that the UPI system has increased tax collection by 117 percent compared to the previous financial year. Tax collection has more than doubled in many panchayats. Earlier, where villagers had difficulty in manual payment, now they are able to make payments easily through mobile. 05 out of 07 blocks of Raigarh district are tribal dominated and this digital payment system has been implemented here too. The special thing is that 330 PVTG Birhor families have also started paying tax through UPI, which is considered a major achievement towards digital inclusion. After the implementation of UPI system, people’s participation in Gram Sabhas has also increased. Analysis done in three panchayats has shown that the attendance of people in Gram Sabhas has increased by 57 percent. It is clear from this that villagers are now taking more interest in the Panchayat system. Transactions done by women self-help groups, BC Sakhis are also increasing continuously. While there was a transaction of Rs 3969.30 lakh in the year 2022-23, it increased to Rs 4236.50 lakh in 2023-24 and reached Rs 4650.80 lakh by the end of February in the year 2025. This initiative has also greatly facilitated account maintenance, audit process and cash ledger reconciliation in gram panchayats. With the presence of digital records of every transaction, the financial system has become more transparent and smooth. This initiative of Raigarh district has now become a role model for the entire Chhattisgarh. Successfully implementing the idea of Digital India, Raigarh district has today become a symbol of digital panchayat governance. Chief Executive Officer of District Panchayat Jitendra Yadav said that under the guidance of Finance Minister OP Choudhary and the then Collector Kartikeya Goyal, digital payment collection was started on a large scale in the panchayats of the district. People were made aware. Tax is being collected through QR code by linking the accounts of panchayats with UPI. Currently, under the leadership of Collector Mayank Chaturvedi, work is being done for digital tax collection in 100% panchayats of the district.
