Notwithstanding the fact that a large number of people used the now-demonetised currency notes to pay property tax, the Coimbatore Corporation has managed only a marginal increase in property tax collection.
Figures available with the civic body indicate that the Corporation has collected ₹ 130.53 crore of the ₹139.48 crore it ought to have collected for the last financial year (2016-17). The collection works out to 94 %, an increase of two percentile points over the collection for 2015-16.
But the impact of demonetisation appears to have been on the collection of tax dues. The outstanding property tax the Corporation had for the last financial year was ₹32.27 crore and it had collected 16.91 crore - 52 %.
At the end of the 2015-16 financial year the Corporation had managed to collect only 42 % of its dues then.
Sources in the civic body said that as in previous years, the Corporation witnessed quite a good collection in the last few days of March. On March 29, the Corporation’s coffers grew by ₹81 lakh, the next day by ₹1.35 crore and on March 31 by ₹2.19 crore.
They added that the Corporation’s collection would have been better but for the election in 2016.
