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.