The Indian Express       14.11.2013

PMC looks for ways to increase LBT revenue

LAGGING far behind in reaching the half mark of revenue collection
estimate of budget in first six months of the financial year, the PMC
has geared up to increase revenue collection from local body tax (LBT)
by seeking information from various state government authorities,
including RTO, sales tax, stamps and registration office, to ascertain
the transactions by traders.

“The revenue collection in the first six months is low and has
raised concern of the civic administration. Thus, it has been decided to
boost the revenue collection by taking help of other government
authorities to ascertain the business in various sector and accordingly
recover LBT from traders. The details of automobile sector would be
sought from RTO while information from registration office would reveal
details of real estate business and sales tax data would enable
information on business of consumer goods,” said Vishal Tambe,
chairperson of the standing committee.

He said the civic administration will analyse the data and
initiate necessary steps to recover LBT from traders. “The traders would
be penalised for not depositing LBT as per the business,” Tambe said.

The standing committee chairperson further said that the
administration would also undertake a special drive from from November
15 to December 31 to identify unassessed properties in the city.
“Efforts would be made to bring unassessed properties in the tax ambit
and increase the collection from property tax,” he said.

Recently, the civic chief had directed all civic departments to
be careful in spending funds with an appeal to start new projects only
if they are very necessary. The civic administration had projected a
shortage of Rs 1,000 crore of the Rs 4,167 crore budget.