The Times of India             04.10.2013

Municipal corporation to enhance revenue without tax hike

VARANASI: The Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) house had decided to increase the revenue of the local body without introducing fresh tax or increasing the existing ones.

During the house meeting on Thursday, most of the corporators raised the issue of tax slab of houses and commercial and industrial properties. Proper assessment and efficient realization of taxes is required to enrich VMC treasury.

Mayor Ramgopal Mohale said that transparency should be maintained at every level by the officials while making an assessment of taxes and realization of these taxes should also be done in equally transparent way by tax supervisors and inspectors.

Answering to allegations of corrupt practices in the tax assessment, realization and lack of uniformity in the determination of house tax slabs, municipal commissioner Jagdeesh Prasad Chaurasiya said that inspectors responsible for the collection of the house and property taxes would be asked to certify the actual number of the taxable properties. In that way, VMC can get an actual account of the taxable properties.

According to the figures in the revised budget, the saving of the local body during the current financial year has been Rs 132.74 lakhs.