The Hindu              22.05.2013

Railways agrees to pay property tax

Staff Reporter

Officials to finalise demand after joint inspection today

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation has succeeded in its endeavour to collect property tax (PT) from the Railways. The Railways and the VMC, however, are yet to arrive at a consensus on the rate of tax.

Municipal Commissioner G.S. Panda Das and his team discussed various issues, including Nizam Gate outfall drain, property tax, sanitation etc., with Divisional Railway Manager Pradeep Kumar on Monday evening.

Another meeting is slated on Wednesday to resolve the stalemate over the rate of property tax. The authorities from both the organisations will go for a joint inspection before finalising the demand, sources have said.

The corporation maintained that the Railways had to pay 75 per cent of the demand as per the Apex Court orders. The Railways, on the other hand, asserted that it would pay only 33.3 per cent of the demand as it was not dependent on the VMC for any of its services citing the court orders.

The Apex Court, in a recent judgment, while hearing a petition filed by Rajkot Municipal Corporation, observed that the Railways had to pay 33 per cent of the property tax demand if it was not dependent on local body for any services; and 75 per cent if it depended on the local body. The Railways will have to pay 50 per cent of the demand if it partially depends on the local body.

There will be more than 200 property tax assessments related to the Railways. The demand will be not less than Rs.1.20 crore per year. The corporation, however, is yet to decide whether it has to press the Railways to clear pending dues or not. It is awaiting pronouncement of a policy from the State government as the issue has Statewide repercussions.

The Hindu              22.05.2013

VMC devises a way to corner tax evaders

G.V.R. Subba Rao

Straightforwardness with the straightforward, crookedness with the crooked seems to be the mantra of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. The VMC officials have found out a new way to trace owners of vacant lands, who have been evading vacant land tax (VLT).

The Corporation is unable to collect the VLT for various reasons including non-availability of addresses of owners. To tide over this situation, the Corporation is banking on the Revenue Department website to zero in on the owners of vacant lands. So far it could collect the addresses of 50 persons. Most of these vacant lands were found in Bharati Nagar area. While some of the owners are residing in Hyderabad and far-off places (according to revenue records), some of them are in the city. The Corporation, however, served notices on all of them. The authorities are contemplating replicating the procedure in every revenue ward of the city as the plan yielded positive results. There is, however, a glitch: data on the website available is from the year 2000 only. So, the Corporation authorities are toying with idea of the Hyderabad model. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is insisting that the applicant obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the revenue wing to approve the building plan, officials said.

The collection of VLT has become a Herculean task for the VMC. As much as Rs.20 crore VLT arrears are pending as the addresses of vacant land owners are not traceable. The Corporation could collect about Rs.4.5 crore per annum during last two years though the total VLT target would be around Rs.8 crore per annum.

The VLT collections improved during the last fiscal compared to previous years. The VLT collections stood at Rs.7.34 crore for 2012-13 as against the previous year’s Rs.4.58 crore. From Rs.50.37 lakhs collected from the existing 1,300 assessments in 2003-04, it went up to Rs.5 crore from 9,500 assessments in 2007-08.

The Corporation is banking on the Revenue Department website to identify the owners of vacant lands.