LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Nagar Nigam has set a target of Rs 100 crore to collect as house tax
in financial year 2013. The initial target was Rs 120 crore but due to
shortage of revenue inspectors who make sure that all houses are covered
under tax net, the target was reduced.

There are around
5,62,000 properties in Lucknow which come under tax net. Authorities
claimed that around 60-70% of these houses have been covered already so
far. Even though LMC last revised house tax rates in April 2010, sources
in LMC claim that the inspectors could assess only 10-15% properties
till April 2012.

Municipal commissioner,
RK Singh said, “It is only during last year that we have been able to
collect tax from about 50-60% properties. We would have achieved our
initial target, if we didn’t have manpower crunch.” LMC currently has
only six revenue inspectors as against requirement of 84. Moreover,
around seven tax superintendants and six tax assessment officers have
been transferred from LMC. As a result, LMC is facing difficulty
collecting house tax.

To meet the target, nagar nigam has also
started issuing attachment notices to property owners who have been
defaulting payment of house tax for many years. Last week, LMC issued
the notice to about 120-odd persons.

Officials confirmed that
on Monday zonal inspectors were able to collect Rs 70 lakh from
defaulters on a single day. Commissioner said the LMC was confident to
complete the set target of house tax amount by March-end. In fact within
March, LMC targets to recover more than Rs 30 crore. He said that
around 80% of the residents from trans-Gomti areas like Gomtinagar,
Aliganj, Mahanagar, Vikasnagar have already submitted their pending
dues. “But, we need to put in some extra effort in the old city areas
like Chowk to recover tax amount. These are smaller properties and most
of the colonies are not planned, which is why our inspectors face
difficulty collecting tax from this part”, added Singh.

Officials said out of the total target, only 10% comprises previous years’ arrears while 80% is the current assessment.