A new online system for processing “mill payments” is set to go live as soon as March 2016 at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
The MillPay pesticide reporting and payment system will give vendors the option to do their reporting electronically, instead of having to mail in paper forms to the department.
Mill assessment fees are charged to licensed pesticide brokers and dealers based on the value of their sales. DPR says the mill fee equals 2.1 cents per dollar, with an additional fee of less than 1/1,000 of a cent per dollar collected for agricultural sales. It’s these numbers and reports the department wants to streamline by moving online.
The new system is currently being tested by vendors and pesticide companies that sell into or within California. Approximately six companies are taking part in the beta testing. MillPay plans to allow users to pay online via credit card or electronic funds transfer.
DPR staff members say historically they spend hundreds of hours four times a year mailing out paperwork to vendors, who then send back the reports for additional manual processing.
The online system was developed in conjunction with a vendor and in-house by DPR’s tech staff and various branches, using Microsoft solutions. The project has been in the works since 2010, when the California Department of Technology began the process; project approval was granted in 2014, launching the beta and pilot earlier this year. Originally budgeted at $1.1 million, the project came in “well below” $1 million, according to DPR staff.
Current beta-testers are pleased with the program, DPR said, and report it’s faster and easier to use than the previous, hard-copy method. A calculator, template and ability to view recent reports are some of the features that have been useful for early adopters.
The DPR’s website states that “MillPay registrants, brokers, and dealers will have the option of submitting pesticide sales data from a convenient, pre-populated list of pesticide products or uploading a file of all pesticide products, sales, and quantity amounts directly to the MillPay website.”
