Urban Development Ministry has asked all the statutory 4,041 Urban Local Bodies to shift to e-payments at the earliest. These cities and towns account for about 75 per cent of the total 40 crore urban population in the country.<br/><br/>Interacting through video-conferencing with senior officials of concerned States, Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba emphasized that all transactions relating to both income and expenditure of urban local bodies needs to be shifted to e-payment mode. <br/><br/>These include payment of property tax, professional tax, water and power bills, license charges, online booking of community halls and registration of shops.<br/><br/>An official release said, states have been asked to promote online banking using credit and debit cards for cashless transactions besides using Public Finance Management Systems developed by the Ministry of Financing for fund transfer, accounting and reconciliation up to the level of cities and towns. <br/><br/>City governments were asked to consider necessary infrastructure and capacity building, awareness initiatives for opening of accounts for employees of various categories and their family members. Officials from Madhya Pradesh informed that the major 7 cities have already enabled cashless transactions and 378 cities and towns would do so by March next year.