Urban News

Besides, it also booked management of two commercial establishments of the city. On September 23, theVigilance had made test assessments of a mall and a hotel. The exercise found irregularities prompting proceedings.

The hotel, according to Vigilance, pays just Rs 2.77 lakh towards the tax whereas basing on the space it uses, the due must be Rs 5.74 lakh. While the commercial space shown for tax accounting was suppressed by the hotel management, the BMC tax officials played into their hands.

The mall, according to the Vigilance, uses about several thousands sq ft area but officially, it pays for 6,700 sq ft. The loss incurred to the state exchequer is to the tune of lakhs of rupees because it pays ` 43,540 against the due of ` 8.75 lakh.

“We’ve booked two cases in this connection.

Two tax collectors and an equal number of tax darogas have been named for their role alongside the commercial establishments,” said Vigilance SP Devdutt Patnaik when contacted.

The exercise is not going to stop with these two establishments and a number of big commercial and institutional establishments have come under the scanner.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), on its part, will not be escaping the Vigilance scanner either since it earns way less than its annual target which has been a trend despite introduction of new tax accounting systems.

In 2002-03, holding tax collection of BMC was just about ` 2.5 cr. Last financial year, it rose to ` 12.9 cr. However, in terms of target achievement, it had barely made past 60 per cent mark while in the year before, it was 59 per cent. Interestingly, the assessee base has risen and BMC is planning to get more under its net.

Against about 2 lakh properties in the BMC limits, holding tax is based on 73,000 units.