Nearly two months before the financial year ends, GVMC’s property tax collection just touched the half-way mark after a drive based on the new penal interest provision introduced by the Government.
According to the provision being implemented from 2014-15, penal interest of 2 per cent is levied on property tax for half-year after the first quarter. If an assessee does not pay the tax for the first half-year by the end of June the interest is levied from November every month. The earlier practice was to impose the penal interest after the end of the half-year. The provision also has an early bird attraction: 5 per cent incentive if the tax for the entire year is paid in April.
A special drive was launched on January 19 in all the zones following the thrust given on collection of tax to shore up revenue by Municipal Commissioner Pravin Kumar.
The collection during the 12 days ending January 31 was Rs.12.44 crore. The remittances peaked on January 31 netting Rs.2.62 crore on a single day. The reason, explains Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) V. Ravindra, is that from that the next day onwards the interest amount will go up. Zone II comprising the core commercial area of the city accounted for Rs.95 lakh on that day. However, with only Rs.26.99 crore of the total Rs.56.27 crore collected, it still has to bring in another Rs.28.36 crore.
Property tax collection picked up in all zones with bill collectors and revenue inspectors and recovery officials going around right from the morning. As a result, the tax collected so far in all the 72 wards stands at Rs.93.09 crore against the total demand of Rs.186 crore.
The collection in Zone I during the drive was Rs.79 lakh, Zone II Rs.4.14 crore, Zone III Rs.2.44 crore, Zone IV 2.08 crore, Zone V Rs.2.32 crore and Zone VI Rs.65.29 lakh.
