Online payment gateway by March to curb passport malparctices

Express News Service

Chennai:

The Finance Ministry has granted permission of introducing online payment gateway for passports and now passport fees is likely to be collected through the system by the end of the financial year, according to Joint Secretary Passport Seva Project and Chief Passport Office Muktesh Kumar Pardeshi.

He said that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) would create the payment gateway by February end and by the end of the financial year the online payment gateway would be launched.

He said through this mechanism fees would be collected through credit card, debit card, online banking or bank challans.

He also said that the online payment would prevent malpractices in obtaining appointments for passport services. He said nearly 25-30 per cent don’t turn for interview after fixing an appointment under fictitious identity details. “It is a total loss of exchequer as you have the government of India waiting for you with all its infrastructure,” said Pardeshi.

"To prevent this we would make online payment before the interview so that those trying out this tactics will think twice as they would be losing the money," he said.

He said there is no special priveleges for travel agents and and it is a myth to believe it. He said government has ensured transparency by making passport application online. This practise has helped remove touts, he said.

Ravi Viswanathan, Head of operations, Chennai, said enough security measures are in place for online application of passports to prevent malpractices and this included keeping a tab on IP address from where a particular submission would be made. He said government had issued 73.65 lakh passports in 2011, which was expected to touch 80 lakh by the end of calendar year 2012. There was 10 per cent annual growth in issuance of passports in the past few years, he said. He also estimated that there would be around 45 million passports in the country.

Chennai regional passport officer C Senthil Pandian said that Chennai has issued 3.18 lakh passport this year which is 23 per cent increase over previous year (2.57 lakh). Interestingly, Tamil Nadu in 2012 issued an all-time high of 7.2 lakh passports in 2012.

Pardeshi said that passport seva kendras has transformed passport issuance system across India through an increased network of 77 passport seva kendras.

Regional                          Passports issued

Chennai                             3.18 lakh

Trichy                                1.56 lakh

Madurai                              1.55 lakh

Coimbatore                        90,000

Total                                   7.21 lakh