The Times of India 16.03.2013
50 per cent of house owners yet to pay tax
VARANASI: Not even 50 per cent of house owners in Varanasi pay their house tax to Varanasi Municipal Corporation
(VMC). While the current financial year is about to end, VMC is lagging
behind in collection of its house tax from the city. Although there are
1,75,000 houses under VMC, bills of only 1,47,000 houses are accounted
at present.
According to records obtained from VMC, out of 1,47,000 houses, taxes from only 72,000 houses have been collected till March 15 pertaining to a collection Rs 15.5 crore. The remaining 75,000 houses are yet to pay the house taxes. VMC has set a target of tax collection of Rs 24 crore by March 31.
The scenario of tax collection has been the same for many years, said the additional municipal commissioner, Sachidanand Singh. "We are not able to collect even 50 percent of taxes. About Rs 17 to Rs 18 crore is collected every year through house tax," he added. The process of billing of the remaining 28,000 houses which were, so far, not accounted for billing has now started. While one mobile-tax collection centre is operating in different parts of the city to boost up the tax collection from this year, it is also given the priority till March 31 at different collection centres in five zones. "Apart from this, the door-to-door collection of house tax, by using GPS enabled spot billing machine, has further hiked the collection. Apart from giving a receipt of the payment on the spot, one copy of the receipt is also saved at VMC office once the tax is paid," he added.
According to in-charge, computer cell, VMC, Sandeep Srivastava, "the machine is also provided with five different options, which are reported to VMC office as the given response from the tax payer. The five different categories are 'tax paid', 'house was found locked', 'tax delayed', 'tax denied', and 'matter is under court's stay'. So, the reason for not paying taxes is reported to us and helps in efficient collection of taxes. A collection of Rs 1.11 crore has been made from the billing machines covering 11,124 houses by March 15."
According to records obtained from VMC, out of 1,47,000 houses, taxes from only 72,000 houses have been collected till March 15 pertaining to a collection Rs 15.5 crore. The remaining 75,000 houses are yet to pay the house taxes. VMC has set a target of tax collection of Rs 24 crore by March 31.
The scenario of tax collection has been the same for many years, said the additional municipal commissioner, Sachidanand Singh. "We are not able to collect even 50 percent of taxes. About Rs 17 to Rs 18 crore is collected every year through house tax," he added. The process of billing of the remaining 28,000 houses which were, so far, not accounted for billing has now started. While one mobile-tax collection centre is operating in different parts of the city to boost up the tax collection from this year, it is also given the priority till March 31 at different collection centres in five zones. "Apart from this, the door-to-door collection of house tax, by using GPS enabled spot billing machine, has further hiked the collection. Apart from giving a receipt of the payment on the spot, one copy of the receipt is also saved at VMC office once the tax is paid," he added.
According to in-charge, computer cell, VMC, Sandeep Srivastava, "the machine is also provided with five different options, which are reported to VMC office as the given response from the tax payer. The five different categories are 'tax paid', 'house was found locked', 'tax delayed', 'tax denied', and 'matter is under court's stay'. So, the reason for not paying taxes is reported to us and helps in efficient collection of taxes. A collection of Rs 1.11 crore has been made from the billing machines covering 11,124 houses by March 15."
