Civic Chief hints at stern action against low performers

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

So far, Rs 54 crore has been collected in the form of property tax and Rs 9 crores in the form water tax, totalling Rs 63 crores. The biggest question is how to collect the remaining Rs 437 crores in the next nine months. The administrator of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation, G Sreekanth, expressed his strong displeasure, urging officials and employees to take the matter of collections seriously and avoid reaching the point of enforcement. He warned the officials and employees that once he takes enforcement action, he will not back down.

The municipal administration planned to collect Rs 500 crore this year through property tax and water tax. However, the collection has not been satisfactory from April to the end of June, which led to this dissatisfaction.

What is the Collection Plan?

The administrator leveraging his experience in the GST department, assigned properties to tax collection employees via Google Sheets. Each collection employee was given 200 to 500 properties. Their job is to deliver the demand notices and collect the taxes. Notably, more than 15 collection employees are appointed on a contractual basis in each zone office. On Friday, the administrator reviewed the collection of property tax and water tax. He expressed his displeasure after seeing the collection figures. He noted that the collection was low in Zones 1, 3, 8, and 9.

What happens after notices are issued?

The administrator instructed to seal commercial properties and marriage halls with overdue property taxes. He questioned why further action is not taken towards confiscation after issuing the first one or two notices for overdue taxes. He instructed them to prepare a list of employees over 55 years of age involved in the collection process.

Opportunity for 42 contract engineers

The municipal administration recently dismissed 42 contract engineers from their jobs. Sreekanth said that if the tax collection officers do not perform satisfactorily, these 42 engineers will be reinstated through a test and employed for the collection work and to identify new properties for tax assessment.