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Taxation

Bug that affects both GVMC and taxpayer

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 05:31 administrator
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The Hindu                       10.04.2013

Bug that affects both GVMC and taxpayer

G.V. Prasada Sarma

But for it, the water tax collection could have been higher.

The GVMC is quite particular about launching a drive to realise property tax dues, as the financial year draws to an end. Property tax is one of the main sources of revenue. Along with property tax, water tax is also collected.

During the March-end rush, a taxpayer was flummoxed when he was told at a private bank that there was no water tax due payable by him. “The computer is not showing any tax against the assessment number given by you. You can pay it when the corporation asks for it,” the bank staff told him. There was no way the tax can be paid, as unless the demand is shown, receipt can’t be generated. Neither the taxpayer is alone in going through the strange experience, nor is the revenue-delaying glitch new to the corporation.

A few years ago, when N. Srikant was Commissioner, a Water Supply official had faced a similar problem. He had taken it to the notice of the Commissioner, who asked the IT wing to look into it. It took nearly two years for the department to get back to the official, who had to pay Rs.6,200 in one go. But not everyone may be prepared to pay cumulative bills at a time. More importantly, things have not changed much since then and the bug continues to bother both the GVMC as well as the taxpayer. The only solace one can draw is that no interest is levied on arrears of water bills.

The corporation’s total demand from 1.49 lakh household supply connections is Rs.16.53 crore, of which by the end of March Rs.13.52 crore was collected. The connections include 2,830 semi-bulk connections for apartments.

They account for Rs.5.32 crore and Rs.4.93 crore was paid.

“This is normal as about 81 per cent of the demand is collected,” said an official of the Water Supply wing of the GVMC. But the collection could have been higher if the software glitch is rectified.

When contacted, Superintendent Engineer (Water Supply) V. Chandraiah said the glitch had affected several taxpayers.

The Water Supply office at Town Service Reservoir had the wherewithal to rectify it and taxpayers may get it done there, he said.

 

Circle 10 tops property tax collection

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 05:15 administrator
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The Hindu                       10.04.2013

Circle 10 tops property tax collection

Citizens living in the core areas of Khairatabad, Begumpet, Ameerpet, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Sanathnagar and the environs of circle 10 ensured that a record Rs.188.9 crore was collected as property tax in 2012-2013 from among the 18 circles.

It is followed by Serlingampally (circle 11 & 12) with Rs.82 crore, Kukatpally (circle 14) with Rs.77.3 crore, Secunderabad (circle 18) Rs.71.79 crore and L.B.Nagar (circle 3) Rs. 60.62 crore. The least amount collected was from the smaller circle of Patancheru/Ramachandrapuram (circle 13) Rs.3.36 crore followed by Alwal (circle 16) Rs.9.24 crore, Rajendranagar Rs.12.43 crore and Uppal (circle 2) Rs.13.52 crore.

South zone comprising the Old City areas of Charminar, Santoshnagar, Malakpet, Dabeerpura, Moghalpura, Falaknuma, Begum Bazar, Doodhbowli and Attapur had together collected about Rs.61 crore, a good Rs. 20 crore more when compared to the year before i.e. 2011-2012. Altogether, the tax collected for 2012-13 is Rs.756 crore as compared to Rs.574 crore, the preceding year.

These details were presented before the meeting held by GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu on Monday. In the next three months, the meeting decided to target property owners who had not paid tax for the last four years.

Petitions

Each bill collector would be given two assistants so as to ensure strict tax compliance from commercial and higher middle class properties. Property tax revision petitions would be taken up in all circles from April 15 to May second week.

GIS mapping and door-to-door survey would be taken up for bringing the under and un-assessed properties into the tax net.

It was also decided to speed up issuance of trade licences while the town planning wing was asked to take up a campaign to warn citizens about unauthorised constructions.

Core areas of the circle comprise Khairatabad, Begumpet, Ameerpet, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Sanathnagar.

 

Holding tax defaulters BMC’s headache

Tuesday, 09 April 2013 09:49 administrator
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The New Indian Express                      09.04.2013

Holding tax defaulters BMC’s headache

Even though holding tax is the second highest revenue generator for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the corporation is helpless when it comes to bringing tax defaulters to task in the absence of a strong legislation.

During its inception, BMC followed the Orissa Municipal Act, 1950 and then the Orissa Municipal Corporation Act, 2003 was implemented. The holding tax, a part of the Orissa Municipal Act, 1950, is toothless as it does not give the corporation the actual power to deal with the defaulters who have not paid the holding tax yet or are repeated defaulters.

“In the Act introduced in 2003, the holding tax was upgraded to be known as property tax. But the Corporation Act was not implemented in its complete form in 2003. A few Acts under it are still awaiting State Government’s approval,” said BMC Deputy Commissioner KP Pati. The property tax and the rules under it are also yet to get the Government’s approval.

BMC’s highest revenue of Rs 50 crore is generated through entry tax that the government pays annually. The second highest revenue of about Rs 20 crore is collected through holding tax. Like last year, this year also BMC managed to collect Rs 20 crore. “If the property tax is brought under the Corporation Act introduced in 2003, it will give the corporation additional power. Under the Act, even the owners of vacant land have to pay holding tax,” said tax inspector Nagen Pujapanda.

Another problem that BMC faces is that the Government is one of its highest defaulters along with a few other private parties. For the last few years, BMC had been putting up hoarding displaying the names and details of the highest defaulters but to no effect. This year, BMC stopped the practise as the defaulters did not pay any heed to it. “We will have to devise other ways of collecting the pending holding tax from them,” said Pati. He added that since there was no strong legislation to back the corporation, all they can do is send the defaulters a distress warrant.

BMC resumed the assessment of the tax units in the city in the last fiscal year. They had stopped it for the past few years due to a stay order by the High Court in 2010. They have added 7000 tax units this year in addition to 81,000 holdings that they had assessed before 2010. BMC is targeting to collect Rs 30 crore in next fiscal by increasing the number of holdings through assessment.

 
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