Abstract:
Complete and reliable information is important for
planning and decision making. Various challenges face Kapsabet
sub-county revenue sector in regard to property tax rates and single
business permit fee collection and management. The main challenges
include lack of full information on the property owners, poor record
keeping and the outdated spatial data. There is no link between the
location of a property and its corresponding data, rendering all forms
of spatial analysis impossible. The main objective of the study was
to address this problem by developing a web-based property tax
information management system that provides an effective tax
collection and management. Open source GIS software was
employed to develop the system. The system developed is composed
of three sub-components: a database management system, a webbased
mapping display and a short message service system. The
database is centralized and contains tools for data updating and
visualization while the web-based hosts the map visualization. The
short message service (SMS) provides information on taxes arrears.
Information on land parcels, buildings, building units, land rates and
single business permit fees was incorporated in the resulting system.
The system has provided an interactive link between real property
and office records. The database results are various maps and list of
coordinates for the tax defaulters. Maps depicts land use,
unregistered properties, taxed and nontaxed properties. List of
coordinates enable tracing of tax defaulters through handheld GPS.
The SMS has provided a convenient way of reminding the property
owners on the payment of taxes through their mobile phones. This
system may be used by property owners in the diaspora to access
information on their property through the web.
