GVMC to collect professional tax

Visakhapatnam: All professional tax payers have to remit the tax at the Municipal Saukaryam Centres either in the form of liquid cash, cheques or drafts written in favour of Commissioner, GVMC as the government has empowered the GVMC for collection of professional tax as per the GO Ms Nos. 497 and 498.Disclosing this at a press conference here on Tuesday, Municipal Commissioner M Harinarayanan told reporters that with the professional tax collection, the GVMC would secure a revenue of Rs 10 to Rs 15 crore per annum.

Highlights:

• Professional tax should be paid at GVMC Saukaryam Centres
• GVMC expecting a better rank this year in Swachh Sarvekshan 2016-17
• Civic chief appeals to people to hand over dry, wet domestic waste separately

He said that they were expecting a better rank in the Swachh Sarvekshan 2016-17 compared to the previous rank of five as one lakh citizens from the city had given their opinions over phone about the Swachh Bharat initiative of the corporation, the highest number of phone calls received from a corporation in the country.

Stating that it is the strength of the city, Harinarayanan claimed that it is more important what citizens feel about the city than getting the rank. Further elaborating on the special initiatives taken by the corporation in expecting a better rank in the Swachh Sarvekshan this year, the civic chief disclosed that declaration of Vizag as Open Defecation-Free (ODF) city, renovation of nearly 80 public toilets making them separate access for men, women and differently abled, night sweeping activity, collection of waste from nearly 2,400 commercial outlets, furnishing opinion by one lakh citizens about the sanitation in the city and the commencement of works on the waste energy plant.

He said the rank and the award would be presented to the GVMC at a function to be held in New Delhi on May 5.Since last year, the corporation has been either renovating the existing public toilets or constructing new public toilets and with this, the present number of public toilets rose to 330 plus and the high power municipal team from Chandigarh which recently visited the city has appreciated the maintenance of public toilet system.

When asked about the construction of individual toilets, the commissioner said already they had built nearly 12,000 so far and it is a continuous process. When asked about number of under-assessments of property tax in the city, he replied that 8,000 such under-assessments were identified last year raising the revenue by another Rs 5 crore.

He said the tax collectors should go to the field to collect the tax as a campaign mode. With regard to the under-assessments, he made both tax collectors and the assesses responsible citing an example that a person who uses his ground floor as residence for sometime will later let out to some commercial establishment without converting the assessment to commercial. When asked about the action taken against Anakapalli TDP MLA Govinda Satyanarayana who built a four storeyed building without obtaining valid permission, he said action has been taken as per the law.