The Hindu 30.03.2011
Property tax collection sluggish
With only two days left for the financial year to end, property tax
payment to the municipal corporation continues to be sluggish with only
Rs. 66 crore of the Rs.174 crore demand, including arrears, being
realised by Tuesday. The demand for the current year is Rs.134 crore of
which around Rs.61 crore has been paid. Either way, it has not reached
the 50 per cent mark. In 2009-10, the payments had been quite
encouraging with Rs.61 crore of the Rs.76 crore demand paid.
Around 13,000 revision petitions (RPs) filed with the
corporation still remain to be processed and finalised. So far 40,000
petitions have been processed, the details placed online and informed to
the assessees, say officials.
Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Sanyasi Naidu said the
corporation intended to complete the process by April-end. For a long
time during the current financial year, there had been a dilemma over
the roll back of the increased tax, though finally it did not
materialise.
According to Additional Commissioner (Finance) P.
Purnachandra Rao, census and election to the legislative council which
had to be completed in a time-bound manner took precedence.
Besides, in view of criticism that the revision
petitions are being processed in the offices, physical verification has
been taken up and it is a time-taking process.
On the distraint notices, the officials said they were being issued only to chronic defaulters and not to all the tax-payers.
The daily collection over the last few days is around
Rs.1.5 crore. On Monday it was Rs. 2.4 crore and Tuesday about Rs.3
crore.
Last year the government had extended the interest
waiver until April 30. It is felt that a similar step will boost revenue
collection this time too.
