Starting November 1, Coimbatore Corporation will organise ‘Municipal Premier League’ (MPL) for revenue wing officials – an exercise aimed at boosting tax collection.
The officials starting with bill collectors on ground to assistant revenue officers in zones to assistant commissioners will compete with one another in the MPL. The Corporation will recognise and reward best performers with certificates and trophies.
The Corporation has joined hands with Bengaluru-based non-government organisation Janaagraha, which is coordinating the MPL. Janaagraha said by recognising and rewarding the revenue wing officials, whose work often went unnoticed and unrecognised, the Corporation tried to boost revenue collection as well.
Review of performance
The Corporation revenue wing officials said the civic body would review the performance of bill collectors, ward-wise, at the end of every month till the end of the current financial year and once at the end of the first three months.
Janaagraha said the competition would be in four revenue streams – property tax, water charges, professional tax and non-tax. While the Corporation would weigh the bill collectors’ performance on tax collected, the parameters of assessing assistant revenue officers and assistant commissioners would be on collection efficiency, new assessments and digital collections.
The Corporation sources said the competition was a part of the civic body’s efforts to improve revenue collection at a time when the financial position was weak.
Another measure the Corporation had taken sometime ago was going after the top 100 tax defaulter in each of the 100 wards.
After issuing notices and sending notices between June and September, the Corporation saw the tax collection improve.
Of the ₹173 crore property tax arrears at the start of the financial year, the Corporation registered a collection of ₹13.22 crore. And, ₹ 47.30 crore as collection of property tax for the current financial year.
Likewise, the Corporation collected ₹ 4.50 crore in arrears and current demand of vacant land tax, the sources added.
As of October 25, the Corporation had collected ₹ 78.37 crore in property tax as against the demand of ₹ 204.09 crore.
