TMC tax collection drive : Rs 22 lakh collected on single day

Tirupati: The revenue officials of Tirupati Municipal Corporation (TMC) collected Rs 22 lakh property tax on Saturday from 316 building owners for the year 2012-13. Two days ago, they collected Rs 60 lakh on a single day. So far, they have collected Rs 16.60 crore against the total dues of Rs 20.66 crore. For the past one week, the officials are issuing notices to tax evaders, but in one case, additional commissioner Eswaraiah served a notice on a building owner stating him to pay within three hours, or else his three shops would be sealed. Revenue Officer of TMC Varma said that they have fixed the deadline to collect property tax arrears by this month end. The special drive was yielding good results as they reached 80 per cent of the target. Last year, their achievement was 96.4 per cent and this year they are confident of crossing this mark, he said. By next week, they are hopeful of collecting about 15 per cent of arrears, he said. This time they are facing a peculiar problem in few areas like Bairagipatteda and Kesavayanagunta, where many houses are seen unoccupied because of water scarcity and nobody was there to receive their notices, Varma pointed out. Near VMC, a building owner refused to pay property tax of Rs 38,000 and used abusive language against the civic staff. Hence, civic officials issued a short term notice and as a result the owner paid total arrears in a single installment, he pointed out. Almost all the hotels, lodges, shopping malls, commercial establishments and apartments have paid taxes, but the problem was with individual house owners, he replied to a query. At any cost there won't be any extension of deadline and they are firm on completing this drive by March 31, he clarified. A senior official told that they will disconnect the drainage and drinking water connection if the building owners did not pay their tax arrears on or before March 31 without any prior notice. Meanwhile, there are several house owners, who are not paying water tax since a year, and the dues from such persons are about Rs 3 crore, which is also to be paid before March 31. A In this case, the civic department may give two weeks time as a grace period and later they would disconnect the water connection, sources said.