Two more banks in India have joined a select few others that enable customers to pay their income taxes at ATMs.
Oriental Bank of Commerce Ltd. began offering the service on April 5 as part of an initiative to provide a 24/7 payment environment for taxpayers, a spokesperson for the state-owned bank tells PaymentsSource
The Mumbai-based bank already had begun accepting taxes through its branches and online, and it expects the service to help the Indian government to achieve its goals to collect more taxes through greater compliance with tax laws, the spokesperson says.
“The service is free and will require the bank’s customers to authorize payments toward their taxes using the ATM menu,” he adds.
On March 31, Union Bank of India Ltd. began offering a similar ATM tax-payment service for its customers, a spokesperson for the Mumbai-based bank tells PaymentsSource. The service is free for the bank’s debit cardholders.
For both banks, the process to participate is similar. Customers first must register using the banks’ website, and banks must verify their tax account numbers with the taxing authorities.
To make a payment after accessing an ATM with their debit card, customers select the Income Tax option from the screen menu. The ATM displays the tax-account number and asks the cardholder to enter his tax-payment amount.
Once the customer authorizes the transaction, he bank debits the tax amount from user’s savings account, and the ATM issues the customer a receipt for the paid taxes.
In March, Mumbai-bases Axis Bank Ltd. similarly launched a tax-payment service tied to its ATMs (
