Digital door number a non-starter in West Godavari district

​Eluru: Digital door number system remained a non-starter in the West Godavari district. The system is aimed at streamlining the tax payments by avoiding loopholes in tax collection. Making use of state-of-the-art technology, the administration had set up an action plan for the same. Though started one year ago, no progress is achieved since then.

Under the scheme, tax collection will depend on the plinth area of the house. Owners have been using the houses for commercial purpose apart from residential use. When it comes to payment of tax, the owners of the premises have been paying tax on the basis of residential use. 

As a result, tax on account of commercial category is not reaching the local bodies. The loss to the exchequer is in the range of several crores of rupees. The officials have been following zonal taxation which has several loopholes. If the area falls under commercial zone, even domestic category of customers have been paying taxes at commercial rates. 

In some other cases, the officials have been forcing the tax payers to obey for commercial tax category as the front portion of their house is being used for commercial purpose. Similarly, people in the areas falling under domestic category have been paying less tax though they rented/ running a commercial activity in other portion of their premises. The officials have been maintaining records neither with old door numbers nor with digital door number.

This practice is giving room for corruption in tax collection. The people have been eagerly waiting for digitalisation of door numbers to avoid irregularities in tax payment. As of now they have been paying house and tap tax as suggested by the officials who are maintaining their own records to categorise the taxable premises.