70 per cent of property tax collected

Civic body warns of disconnecting water supply of defaulters

With only a month and couple of days left for the end of the financial year, the Coimbatore Corporation has gone full throttle to collect property tax.

According to sources, it has asked all the bill collectors to serve demand notices to all the assessees and ensure that they pay the property tax for the current year and arrears, if any.

According to Commissioner in-charge S. Sivarasu, the Corporation had planned to better last year’s collection of 89 per cent by ensuring that all the assessees paid the tax.

To ensure that the tax payers had no difficulty in paying the tax, the Corporation had introduced the e-payment facility last year.

Tie-up

It had also tied up with a number of banks, branches of which would accept money to be credited to the Corporation account.

He said that he along with Assistant Commissioner Revenue M. Sundararajan and assistant revenue officers were monitoring the situation on a daily basis. As of Monday last, the Corporation had collected 70 per cent of the current demand (tax for the current year).

The 70 per cent translates to Rs. 72.52 crore.

The the money the Corporation ought to collect is Rs. 140 crore – Rs. 36.52 core in property tax arrears plus Rs. 103 crore for the current term.

Mr. Sivarasu said that of the five zones Central Zone had fared well in that the collection there stood at Rs. 24.73 crore (74 per cent).

South Zone fared poorly with the assessees there paying only Rs. 6.96 crore (60 per cent).

The income from property tax was important for the civic body as it accounted for a little more than 53 per cent of its total income of Rs. 191 crore.

Water charges

Income from water charges accounted for around Rs. 25 crore, D&O License Rs. 1.50 crore, non-tax Rs. 10 crore, professional tax Rs. 10 crore and Rs. 30 crore in miscellaneous accounted for income from other sources.

Mr. Sivarasu said that the Corporation had warned against default in payment.

For those who ignored the warning, it would start disconnecting water supply. And for the top 100 defaulters in the wards, the civic body would send a reminder.

He added that increase in collection would translate in better schemes for the general public as the financial viability of the civic body was important.