The Hindu 21.09.2009
VMC revenues improve considerably
Staff reporter
| The collection under property tax head increases to Rs. 18.36 cores |
The collections on water meters also improves and touches Rs. 1.40 crores
Officials admit shortfall in vacant land tax collection
VIJAYAWADA: The revenue collections of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) seem to have improved over the previous financial year. The collections from April 1, 2009, to September 17, 2009, improved under all heads, except the vacant land tax, as compared to the same period the previous year. The collections on account of property tax, water, sewerage, commercial complexes and water meters and under other heads have shown improvement, official sources say.
While the property tax collection was Rs. 14.61 crores the previous year, it increased to Rs. 18.36 crores this year. Similarly, the water tax collection for the same period has gone up by some Rs. 80 lakhs from the previous year’s Rs. 2.14 crores, while sewerage collections touched Rs. 78 lakhs as against Rs. 63.48 lakhs the previous year.
Rent
Likewise, the rent realisation from commercial complexes also improved, with the corporation receiving Rs. 3.17 crores this year as against last year’s Rs. 3.04 crores. The collections on water meters also improved and touched Rs. 1.40 crores as against last year’s Rs. 1.31 crores, the officials say. The special drive taken up by the corporation is apparently yielding the desired results, as the revenue officials could collect Rs. 18.36 crores under property tax, as against the target of Rs.23.51 crores, for the first half of the financial year that ends on September 30. The officials exude confidence that they would be able to collect the remaining Rs. 5.58 crores by the month-end to reach the target.
Disciplining defaulters
The VMC officials have started disconnecting water connections for households that have not been paying the taxes. The officials disconnected as many as 1,264 water connections in Circle-I, 996 in Circle-II and 2,673 in Circle-III. This resulted in defaulters clearing the dues. The officials collected Rs. 12.33 lakhs from all these households as pending dues.
With regard to the vacant land tax, the officials admit the shortfall in collections for various reasons. They say it would take a couple of weeks to achieve the target. They recall that a special drive was conducted in February this year, and as many as 649 new assessments were made then. The total number of new assessments in 2008-09 touched 1,019.
During the special drive, the officials were able to collect Rs. 1.38 crores, while the total VLT collection stood at Rs. 2.5 crores during 2008-2009. The corporation is emphasising on collection of VLT, and the total number of assessments and the revenue realised under the category have been showing a steady increase. From a mere Rs. 50.37 lakhs collected from 1,300 assessments in 2003-04, it went up to Rs. 5 crores from 9,500 assessments in 2007-08, officials say.
