It is that time of the year that the Coimbatore Corporation sends out reminder notices to property tax assessees, water users, owners of vacant lands and others to pay their dues.
And, it has done so this year as well as it asked the assessees to pay up in time or face penal action.
To facilitate payment of property tax, water charges, vacant land tax, professional tax and other waste collection user fee, the Corporation said its collection centres will be open on weekends as well, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
But this year is different because the Corporation hopes to expedite the tax collection work at the earliest as its employees will be drawn to election work and therefore the urgency, say officials.
As of January 20, the Corporation has seen only 65% of the current year’s tax reach its coffers -the Corporation has realised ₹ 101.02 crore of the total demand of ₹ 156.40 crore. On the property tax arrears collection front things are not as good as the current year's collection as the collection percentage stands at a mere 23 – it has collected ₹ 7.25 core of the total arrears demand of ₹ 30.94 crore.
The officials say the Corporation has already sent reminders to assessees who have failed to pay tax and that includes owners of houses, flats, commercial and industrial establishments. And, if they still fail to pay, the Corporation will look at initiating penal action.
There is another area that the Coimbatore Corporation is also focussing on this year – collection of waste handling fee. Based on the Council resolution dated March 27, 2017, the Corporation had decided to levy waste handling fee from houses, apartments, education institutions, hospitals, small eateries, hotels, wedding halls, cinemas and almost all commercial establishments, based on building size and property tax levied.
The Corporation wants to focus on waste collection fee because the collection has been only ₹ 95.81 lakh against the total demand of about ₹ 20 crore. Though the Corporation passed the resolution in March 2017, it had not begun collection till 2018 and even after it began, it stopped midway due to political pressure.
The Corporation resumed collection a few months ago to shore up its revenue and also comply with the commitment it had given to Central and State governments, while availing of nearly ₹ 100 crore for taking up a solid waste management project.
