Corpn. surpasses last year’s property tax collection

The 2017-18 financial year that just ended had proved to be a good one for Coimbatore Corporation, at least as far as property tax collection is concerned.

According to sources, the Corporation had collected 95 % of its property tax for the year and that was the highest collection in the last four years. Of the demand for ₹148.96 crore for 2017-18, the Corporation had collected ₹141.31 crore, as of 8 p.m. on March 31.

On the last day alone - March 31, 2018 - the Corporation saw ₹1.42 crore flowing in to its kitty. To enable such last-minute payments, the civic body had kept open its collection centres till 5 p.m. on weekdays and also on Saturdays.

This year’s achievement is slightly more than 2016-17. For the 2015-16 fiscal, the Corporation collected 93 % and the year before the Corporation netted 93 %.

Among the five zones, East, West, North and Central zones recorded 95 % property tax collection. South alone lagged behind at 88 %, the sources said and pointed out the zone-wise property tax collection figure was as of March 30. If the March 31st collection of ₹1.42 crore was to be divided among the five zones, the figure would marginally increase.

The local body had deployed over 200 personnel to the wards targeting those Property Tax assessees who had arrears. This yielded rich dividends. Likewise, the Corporation was also forced to use coercive methods against those assessees who failed to pay despite repeated reminders and door-to-door visits.

Targeting such assessees, the Corporation initiated water supply disconnection measures. As of March 31, 2018, the Corporation had disconnected 86 water lines, the sources added.

However, on the collection of property tax arrears, the Corporation had not fared well in percentage terms. It had only collected 42 % of the arrears as against 52 % collection during 2016-17. But the money collected was more in that in 2017-18 the Corporation netted ₹19.25 crore as against ₹16.94 crore for 2016-17.