The Hindu 22.03.2011
Civic body serves notices on property tax defaulters
Tax-payers want revision petitions disposed of first
The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has served attachment
notices on about 600 persons for non-payment of property tax for a long
time, according to Municipal Commissioner V.N. Vishnu.
The collection so far has been Rs.51.7 crors. The total
demand from about 3.2 lakh assesses is Rs.136 crore. The last date for
payment of property tax in this financial year is March 31. The
collection has been sluggish this year so far with a steep hike in the
tax and tax-payers hoping for a rollback. Tax-payers’ fora have also
been alleging that the revision petitions filed are not disposed of
following the due process.
Civic officials said a list of defaulters had been prepared on the basic of which the notices were issued.
Condemning the “coercive and strong arm” tactics of the
Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation for forcing payment of
property tax, Visakha Tax Payers’ Association has demanded that the
revision petitions filed be disposed of first.
Secretary of the newly-formed association O. Srinivas
recalled that the Municipal Commissioner and the Mayor themselves had
stated that the property tax need not be paid until the revision
petitions were disposed of. Now forcing payment was unfair and against
principles of natural justice, Mr. Srinivas said in a statement adding
the tax-payers were being coerced to pay the enhanced tax or face
seizure proceedings.
GVMC at best could ask those who had applied for
revision to pay the tax at previous rates while reserving the right to
collect the balance, if any, payable on disposal of revision petitions,
Mr. Srinivas said.
The association alleged the revision petitions were
being disposed of in a mechanical manner without answering the issues
raised in the petition but harping on measurement which, it contended,
was not an issue for old buildings.
Questions like taxing similar buildings differently in
the same locality and not distinguishing between self-occupied and
rented buildings were left unanswered, he said.
The association demanded that GVMC should desist from
coercive methods but follow due process of law lest the matter should be
taken to appropriate forum to seek justice. The Commissioner told
reporters who met him on Monday that an awareness meeting would be held
with the associations concerned to ban use of plastic carry bags below
20 microns thickness. Priority will be given to the Beach Road area for
implementing the ban.
Dog menace
On the menace of street dogs, he said anti-rabies
vaccination should be taken up after identifying areas where the dog
population was more. Survey on street dogs would be taken in the next
few days and completed by the end of April.
On the proposal of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust Chairman
that a beach park be developed at Lawson’s Bay Colony, a project report
had been prepared by the Planning wing and sent to the Engineering
Department for preparing estimates.
Mr.Vishnus said a proposal for a new market at
Malkapuram would be taken up after the corporation general body approval
and giving site in lieu of its site to the port trust at Mudasarlova.
