VIJAYAWADA: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has topped the list of urban local bodies in tax collections in the state at the end of 2023-24 fiscal.
While Vijayawada stood in the second spot, Guntur secured the third place in collection of property taxes.
In a surprising trend, majority of the cities including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur did not really perform well when compared to the targets set for the respective urban local bodies.
The state govt had waived penalties on all dues of property taxes if paid before March 31. The exemption of penalties was granted in view of hardship faced by property owners since outbreak of Covid-19 two years ago.
The govt wanted to provide relief to all property owners by way of granting complete waiver of penalties as a one-time gesture. The govt expected a massive boost in tax collections thanks to penalty waiver.
Although major cities reported decent collections, it was still below expectations as civic bodies could make only around 35 to 50 per cent of the total demand for the fiscal.
GVMC collects Rs 457.2 cr tax, meets 32% target
For instance, GVMC’s total tax collections till Sunday night stood around Rs 457.22 crore against the actual demand of Rs 1,428.04 crore. This is around 32 percent of the target. However, GVMC surpassed its own record of Rs .420 crore tax collected during the last fiscal.
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) netted Rs 162.42 crore against the target of Rs 381.98 crore. This is around 42.52 percent of the total demand. Sources said that owners of commercial establishments, the major contributors to the tax chest, did not show enthusiasm to pay taxes resulting in poor results. Officials feel that big taxpayers were hesitant to clear the dues chiefly due to enforcement of the model code of conduct which restricted their cash-handling.
“It looks like that some taxpayers who used tax payments route to convert their black money to legal money, simply backtracked for fear of getting caught,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.
Another reason the officials suspect is that the traders and big taxpayers have preferred to utilise the amounts to fund their favourite parties and candidates in the elections prompting them to postpone tax payments to local bodies.
In another instance, Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) pocketed Rs 114.68 crore against the total demand of Rs 280.86 crore. The collections stood around 40.83 percent of the demand. “Our collections are very decent as people have availed penalty exemption granted by govt. The actual demand is including Rs.20 crore which was treated as uncollectible amount in the past. In that sense, revenues are very much good,” said Keerthi Chekuri, commissioner, GMC.
Mangalagiri-Tadepalli Municipal Corporation (MTMC), Kurnool and Kadapa municipal corporations performed extremely well in terms of total percentage of collections as they pooled up around 70, 64 and 61 percent respectively.
