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Taxation

Taxpayers find Indore Municipal Corporation's personal touch useful

Tuesday, 04 June 2013 12:07 administrator
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The Times of India              04.06.2013

Taxpayers find Indore Municipal Corporation's personal touch useful

INDORE: You have been receiving SMSes reminder for DTH recharge, payment of mobile bill, credit cards and so on. Now onwards, Indoreans will get one more SMS and e-mail reminder. This digital reminder will not be from corporate company, but it come from a 'sarkari' agency.

In a move that can be called 'digital initiative' Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has started sending reminder through SMS and e-mail about payment of property and water tax. The reminder is to pay advance tax for 2013-14 and avail six% rebate on tax, if payment is made before June 30. SMS reminder also promises prizes through lucky draw for advance taxpayers. And the civic body has offered the first prize of a car.

The initiative is being received well by taxpayers, who have not expected such a gesture from any government agency, particularly from IMC. "Today our life is so busy that sometimes certain important things slip from our mind. A reminder through SMS or e-mail help in discharging certain important duties on time," said Sumit Agrawal, one of taxpayers and recipient of SMS reminder.

The move is helping IMC mop up revenue fast. Till now, around 80,000 civic tax payers have paid advance tax and the civic body is expecting that number of advance tax payers will go up to 1 lakh by the end of the month. Collection from advance tax payment has increased by nearly 25%.

IMC secretary Abhay Rajangawkar said the civic body has entered into an agreement with a company for SMS and e-mail reminder service. "From last year, we have asking our taxpayers to share their e-mail address and mobile number at the time of paying their tax. Now, we have data of around 40,000 phone numbers and nearly 15,000 e-mal addresses," Rajangaokar said, adding they are updating data to bring more and more taxpayers in the ambit of this service. The civic body has also started a system under which people register to get reminder through SMS.

Pradeep Sharma, who has received a thanks letter from the mayor, said till now private companies and agencies were treating their customers in this way to make them feel special. Now, the civic body also joined the league. "This was a pleasant surprise," said Sharma. 

 

GVMC plans to get tough on vacant land tax defaulters

Monday, 03 June 2013 11:57 administrator
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The Times of India                 03.06.2013

GVMC plans to get tough on vacant land tax defaulters

VISAKHAPATNAM: Vacant land tax (VLT) defaults are increasingly becoming a cause of concern for the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), which could mop up only 58.8% of the total tax of Rs 17 crore from its 13,000 authorized vacant site owners in 2012-13 financial year.

GVMC collects 0.2% land or site value declared by an authorized agency such as the department of registrations as VLT. However, it has been unable to collect a large portion of the dues, which have mounted to Rs 35 crore in the last five years.

Successive commissioners, including present civic chief M V Satyanarayana, have failed to collect the dues and VLTs every year, which is supposed to be paid to GVMC by the owners annually.

The Port City has as many as 63,000 vacant land sites in the area spread across 534 sq km falling under 72 wards and 32 peripheral villages, according to Geographical Information System (GIS) data. If the owners of all vacant sites pay tax, GVMC can get VLT of Rs 66 crore every year.

However, Satyanarayana said that as on Saturday, June 1, 2013, the civic body possessed data, such as profile and addresses of the owners of only about 13,000 vacant land sites.

"GVMC's target for the year is Rs 24 crore, including Rs 7 crore dues of the previous year. We have been making all possible efforts to gather information of all vacant sites and reach the target of about Rs 66 crore from 63,000 assessments," the civic chief told TOI.

The corporation has decided to adopt a new strategy to tackle VLT defaulters, according to GVMC's additional deputy commissioner (revenue) R Somannarayana. GVMC will give wide publicity about VLTs and legal problems to its defaulters and also appeal to them to clear VLT dues before July 31 this year, the officials said.

After July 31, an outsourcing agency will collect all information, including documents, of the defaulters and submit it to GVMC for levying and collection of VLT. Besides, GVMC revenue staff will collect information from the sub-registrar office for valuing the tax as well as for the latest mutation and for sending notices to the parties or owners of VLTs.

"The service charges for collection of information and documents to private agency shall be borne by the vacant land or owners only," Somannarayana said. Besides, physical verification from the layout owners associations and neighbours will also be done along with the data collection, the official said.

GVMC collects 0.2% land or site value declared by an authorized agency such as the department of registrations as VLT. However, it has been unable to collect a large portion of the dues, which have mounted to Rs 35 crore in the last five years. 

 

Rajkot civic body collects Rs 3.94 crore advance tax in one day

Friday, 31 May 2013 11:38 administrator
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The Times of India               31.05.2013

Rajkot civic body collects Rs 3.94 crore advance tax in one day

RAJKOT: The Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has collected Rs 3.94 crore as advance property tax collections on Thursday.

RMC officials said that now 31 May is the last day to take advantage of the rebate scheme which it offered to early tax payers.

RMC has offered 10 percent tax rebate to men and 15 percent rebate to women property owners in the city. Now, from June 1 to June 30, RMC will offer 5 percent to men and 10 percent to women in the city.

About 4957 property owners paid their tax in single day to take benefit of the scheme as the last date of rebate scheme is 31 May.

According to RMC officials, they have received a very good response from the tax payers to incentives as 1.33 lakh tax payers have paid their tax in advance. Sources in RMC said that they have set target of Rs 180 crore of property tax during 2013-14 financial years in the city.

 
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