The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, which lagged in tax collection for years, is now at the forefront among the top municipal corporations in the State.
Of the ₹155 crore the proportional tax demand for the current fiscal year up to Thursday, the civic body has managed to collect ₹68 crore, that is 43%, according to the Municipal Administration’s dashboard. Last year in the corresponding period, only ₹61 crore had been collected which had pushed the civic body into trouble due to lack of funds. The tax demand of the city is ₹233 crore this year.
The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, largest in the State with a tax demand of ₹944 crore and proportional demand of ₹629 crore (up to Nov. 23), has only collected 23% of the latter so far.
Collecting only ₹109 crore during the corresponding period last year, the GVMC registered a growth of 30% collection this year while the VMC registered a growth of 9.3%.
Urban local bodies including Guntur, Nellore, Tirupati, Kakinada and Rajahmundry whose proportional demand is over ₹50 crore, have failed to collect at least half of it. They have also registered a downward trend in tax collection.
Vacant land tax
Meanwhile, the collection of the Vacant Land Tax has turned a major problem for the civic body in the city.
A majority of the vacant land taxpayers have been defaulting on the payment for decades and the civic body is unable to catch hold of them. The civic body’s initiative of putting up warning boards in the vacant lands has forced taxpayers to come into the picture but the overall response has not been as expected. The civic body threatened them that building permissions would not be issued for such lands with long pending dues.
The taxpayers in municipal divisions 3, 13, 16, 19, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39, 43 and 45 of the city are ahead in paying the taxes. Nearly 95% of the proportional demand has been paid in the 11 divisions.
