LUCKNOW: After failing to meet
tax collection targets for the past few years,
LMC, as the last resort, will now be making rounds of colonies and visiting all taxable properties one-by-one to collect taxes from house owners. The corporation has purchased around 100 handheld machines which tax and revenue inspectors will carry with them and accept all forms of payment—cash,
cheque, or cards—from the tax payers.
According to LMC’s records, there are 5,40,000 properties within municipal jurisdiction which need to pay taxes, but only 2,25,000 properties (around 42%) pay tax to LMC regularly. Also, LMC estimated a total tax collection of Rs 600 from the city, but could collect only about Rs 178 crore in the last financial year, which is less than 30%. In FY 2016-2017 too, the collection was around Rs 192 crore only.
The shortfall in tax collection is largely attributed to bills not reaching the target houses, and delay in assessment of taxes. Also, a lot of cases are pending because of discrepancy in the tax assessment or legal disputes. To resolve the issues, LMC tied up with a private bank to deliver hand-held machines for accepting all modes of payment. The machines are linked with the tax software of LMC, so that the tax inspector can check the status of tax, arrears and payment till date on the spot on the machine itself. The linking of machine with LMC’s software has been done by NIC.
LMC’s official in-charge of tax collection said, “As soon as the inspector reaches your house, he will cross-check the bill status and receive payment from the owner. He would solve any discrepancy on the spot and generate an acknowledgement receipt there.”
Representative Image
