BRTA

In course of discussion with the concerned officials, as also from my experience of making the deposits myself this year, it appeared to me that the existing procedure of receiving the deposits and issue of tax tokens need to be changed to ensure flawless deposit and for saving the depositors from tremendous harassment. Presently people have to queue up in long lines at the BRTA counters where the disposal rate is very slow because the concerned man at the counter has to receive the money, make a number of entries, issue token and perform other works in connection with the deposit. Thereafter he passes the papers to the Post Master for his signature. While this process goes on, people at the long queue keep standing for their turn. Because of such a lengthy process, quite a good number of people have to go back at the end of the day as the counter is closed at the fixed time. Besides, after waiting for several hours in the queue when one finally reaches the counter he may be told that his papers are not in order which can however brought to order if he would agree to satisfy the man otherwise. Because of such harassment and time-consuming procedure, people are rather compelled to take help of the agents who move around the place and would invariably approach you as soon as you enter the BRTA premises. The large-scale incidents of fraud could occur due to an unholy alliance between these agents and a section of BRTA employees.

A common complaint that I heard at different stages of my contact in BRTA is that there is a tremendous shortage of manpower. This is possibly true because BRTA has reportedly a total strength of less than 300 for its all offices throughout the country. May be there is truth in it. But even such manpower could be more effective if proper system could be introduced for various functions conducted by them.

So an effective system should be in place to improve the efficiency of BRTA and redress the sufferings of the taxpayers. The authorities concerned may look into the matter urgently.