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BBMP to Hit the Streets for Taxes

Monday, 02 December 2013 06:20 administrator
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The New Indian Express             02.12.2013

BBMP to Hit the Streets for Taxes

Cash-strapped BBMP will soon launch a street campaign to collect property taxes from major defaulters. PTI file photo
Cash-strapped BBMP will soon launch a street campaign to collect property taxes from major defaulters. PTI file photo

Cash-strapped BBMP will soon launch a street campaign to collect property taxes from major defaulters.

According to Mayor B S Sathyanarayana, this drive is expected to increase tax collection by `1,000 crore.

He said a team of officials of BBMP and Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force and councillors, will go to the streets where more tax defaulters are present.

Sathyanarayana said this drive aims to collect taxes from major defaulters like IT-BT companies and other commercial establishments. The team will personally visit buildings and assess taxes.

“The team will also crosscheck the built-up area and compare it with the data declared by the owners under the Self Assessment Scheme (SAS). If any difference is found, notice will be issued to collect the remaining amount,” he said. He added that this drive is expected to be conducted at zonal level.

Members of BBMP’s Taxation and Finance Committee recently visited the Wipro campus in Sarjapur to collect dues of `16.47 crore. But Wipro authorities refused to pay. In turn, they released a note claiming that it was an illegal attempt by the civic authorities to collect money from them.

Irked by this, councillors, cutting across party lines, raised their voice against the company. Following this, the civic body now proposes to conduct street campaigning to collect property taxes from major defaulters.

Mayor to Write to State Govt

According to Sathyanarayana, BBMP revenue officials are given additional work like ration card survey, electoral work and other non-revenue related works.

“As they are given additional works, they are not able to concentrate on tax collection. I shall write to the State government soon, requesting them not to give other works to revenue officials,” he said.

A senior BBMP official said, at present, there were more than 600 officers working in the Revenue Department including tax inspectors and revenue officers.

“Around 25 to 30 per cent people pay their taxes under SAS. With this, existing staff are sufficient to collect taxes. But given additional tasks, these officials are not able to collect taxes,” sources said.

 

PMC to follow suit, awaits consensus

Monday, 02 December 2013 06:05 administrator
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The Indian Express             02.12.2013

PMC to follow suit, awaits consensus

After PCMC's e-governance project drew national acclaim, the Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to follow suit. However, corporators in the PMC are not sure if they should allow the civic administration to appoint the same agency to implement the online facility for civic services.

After the PCMC project was recognised at the national level and received praise from Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the PMC administration that was unable to get its e-governance project on track had opted for the agency implementing the PCMC initiative.

Mentioning the success of the PCMC project, the civic administration had last month tabled the proposal for implementing the same project in the PMC with no cost to the civic body. But the elected representatives kept the proposal pending for discussion for a month. "We need some clarifications over its implementation. The committee would visit the PCMC to understand the project before giving a free hand to the administration to implement it in the PMC," said Vishal Tambe, chairperson of the standing committee.

A corporator said the public at large was unaware of the PMC services and ways to take advantage of them. "PMC elected representatives are able to maintain their clout in their respective electoral ward by getting the PMC-related public work done. The importance of corporators will reduce if the public is able to get their work done through the e-governance project," he said, citing the reason why corporators are not in favour of the project.

The PMC had undertaken the e-governance project in 2009, as per the guidelines under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. However, the civic administration has been facing problem with regard to its implementation as the software is outdated and it is unable to bring in changes to accommodate the revised civic rules as there is no source code available for the purpose, according to officials.

A total of 28 civic facilities will be provided through the project. These include collection of property tax, local body tax and issuance of birth and death certificates.

 

VUDA Board to deliberate on illegal allotments

Monday, 02 December 2013 05:19 administrator
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The Hindu             02.12.2013

VUDA Board to deliberate on illegal allotments

Special Correspondent

The VUDA Board will meet on December 13 to deliberate on an agenda of about 50 issues and a few policy decisions.

Further action on the 94 cases of illegal allotment of plots identified by the CID, allotment of units falling vacant in Harita Housing Project at Endada and the final cost arrival will be the main issues, according to VUDA Vice-Chairman N. Yuvaraj. Issues pertaining to VUDA Children Arena, land-pooling project at Cherlopalikhandam of Anakapalle, subjects relating to YSR –VUDA Central Park development work, some of the PPP Projects, ongoing projects, Master Plan Roads, steps to be taken in case of identified leftover plots in VUDA layouts, allotment of identified odd-bits in VUDA layouts and other administrative matters of Urban Forestry, Planning and Engineering wings will come up for discussion at the board meeting. As a statutory process, the VUDA Board has to meet at least once in six months. The previous meeting was held in July.

 
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