Having put behind it the property tax increase that generated lot of resentment, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has now shifted its focus to realising property tax dues from top defaulters.
It has listed more than 320 top defaulters and began issuing a series of notices to them to pay up.
Sources said a demand notice, followed by notice of demand under Section 278 of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act were being issued. This will be followed up with a notice of “distraint for attachment.”
From among each zone those who defaulted in payment are being issued these notices every week so as to accelerate the process of realising dues from them.
Sources said the dues from the top defaulters, mainly commercial establishments and educational institutions, come to around Rs.6 crore.
“It has become important for us to realise these dues as around three lakh assessments yield Rs.50 crore while 50,000 account for about Rs.60 crore in regular property tax payments,” says an official of the GVMC.
The recent judgment for payment from GITAM University has come as a shot in the arm for the GVMC.
The corporation has issued notices to a public sector corporation that hired godowns at Lakshmipuram from an entrepreneur following his failure to pay the arrears. The dues account for about Rs.10 lakh pending for one and half years.
