Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) will launch a special drive soon to recover water cess and house tax dues amounting to nearly ₹42 crore.
Municipal Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan on Saturday said developmental activities being carried out by the civic body would be more effective if denizens pay the taxes on time.
Stating that the domestic water connection tariff in the corporation limits was the lowest compared to other cities, he told reporters here that out of an outstanding amount of ₹29 crore towards water charges, they could realise just ₹6.8 crore as on today. He appealed to people to clear the dues immediately.
Mr. Hari Narayanan said out of house tax of arrears of ₹37 crore, they had so far collected ₹17 crore. “As we wanted to take up infrastructure augmentation works in a big way, I appeal to the people to extend their cooperation and pay the amounts immediately,” he said. In all, the corporation had so far collected ₹134.77 crore including the arrears towards property tax and ₹17 crore towards individual water connection charges. Towards vacant land tax, GVMC had received ₹7.35 crore. The revenue from water charges including bulk connections was ₹150 crore.
He said for bulk and semi-bulk connection-holders, it had been made compulsory to have functional rain water harvesting systems and warned of severe action against those who failed to comply with in next two to three months.
GVMC schools
Referring to poor performance of 10th class students who studied in GVMC schools, he said they had decided to pay special attention to improve the performance from current academic year.
Tests would be conducted among students and to be evaluated independently to find out strengths and weaknesses of students. “Based on the feedback, special coaching will be provided to boost their morale and help them perform better. We want to ensure that our school students are on par with other convent schools,” he said.
Mr. Hari Narayanan said the online building plan facility introduced by the government had evoked an encouraging response in Visakhapatnam. As on today, 3,600 applications were approved online within 48 hours of receiving them.
