Special drive to collect property tax arrears in Tuticorin

The municipal administration has begun a special drive in the town to collect property tax arrears.

The demand, collection and balance (DCB) graph pertaining to property tax indicated that Rs.893.09 lakh of property tax remains to be collected from 70,000 buildings spread over 52 wards. Of this, Rs 690.16 lakh was the arrear scooped from the last financial year and the remaining the arrear generated during the current fiscal till August 31.

The DCB for the current fiscal alone pointed out that only Rs.72.42 lakh out of a total Rs.275.34 lakh, accounting to 26 per cent of the demand, was collected.

Similar to property taxes, rising arrears in the non-tax segment too are posing threats to the financial status of the municipal exchequer.

A total of Rs.262.89 lakh needed to be collected as non-taxes comprising rentals from municipal buildings and lease amount from cycle stands and markets.

Besides, over Rs.one crore was yet to be collected as water charges, municipal sources said.

A senior official said the paucity in tax collections was mainly owing to the shortage of adequate staff at the municipality.

K. Kanagaraj, Municipal Commissioner, said the administration had started disconnecting water supply to the edifices owned by the defaulters of property taxes. Eight connections were disconnected so far.

Source: The Hindu