Chennai, Jan 17 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday announced it would fully computerise the activities of its commercial taxes department at an outlay of Rs.230.96 crore to provide transparent governance as well as improve tax compliance.

In a statement issued here, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has ordered computerisation of all activities of the commercial taxes department owing to the growing number of transactions and also improve its productivity.

Presently only the basic functions are computerised. The total mechanisation is expected to be completed in 14 months time.

The government will also set up a 24-hour call centre to provide information asked by the tax payers to reduce the personal interaction between the businessmen and the department officials.

It has also decided to train all the employees of the commercial taxes department on operating the computers and also educate the tax payers about computerisation and its benefits.

According to the government, the computerization would enable seamless audit of the transactions and networking with other departments and simplification of the procedures.

A high-level monitoring committee, chaired by the chief secretary, has been formed to oversee the computerisation process.