The Hindu 22.05.2013
VMC devises a way to corner tax evaders
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.
