BMC targets Rs 150cr revenue in 2018-19

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has targeted to achieve Rs 150 crore revenue by the end of current fiscal. If met, the amount will be Rs 15 crore more than what was collected during the previous fiscal.
So far, the civic body has mopped up Rs 60 crore from holding tax, trade license fee, advertisement license and miscellaneous services that it offers. In 2017-18 fiscal, it had generated Rs 135 crore.

The civic body, however, won’t be able to collect user fee, another significant component of revenue as it has been fighting the user fee case in the Orissa high court with some residents, who have gone against the move. User fee came into force in 2015. After a year of implementation, residents opposed it. User fee is collected for spitting in public, littering public road with household waste and stacking construction debris.

A BMC officer said they have been able to generate Rs 18 crore of holding tax, Rs 3 crore from trade license and Rs 10 crore from advertisement license and Rs 29 crore from components such as rent of kalyan mandaps, jatri niwas, parking fee till January end. “We generate about 65% of the targeted revenue in February and March because people keep waiting till March to pay different fee. In 2017-18 fiscal, we had targeted Rs 120 crore but because of aggressive collection, we generated Rs 15 crore more than the target,” said an officer of BMC.

From holding tax alone, the civic body hopes Rs 60 crore to bring to its coffers. “In 2017-18, holding tax target was Rs 45 crore, but we received Rs 41 crore. “Like the previous year, we will list the names of holding tax defaulters. Last year, just a week before the end of financial year, we had put up names of 253 defaulters out of which only one individual turned up to pay the dues. But this time, we will do so in the first week of March,” the officer added.

Last fiscal, the civic body had not fared well in the collection of trade license fee. It was just Rs 4.98 crore up from 2016-17 fiscal. “We may be able to receive Rs 7 crore from trade license fee.

In December, BMC started enumeration of traders to bring them under the ambit of trade license fee. The physical verification will help BMC know if any trader has recently set up his business but has not voluntarily obtained a registration.

For various trades and size of the business, there are different slabs of license fee. So far, there are nearly 31,000 traders registered to pay trade license fee. But on a rough estimate there are still 5,000 traders outside the ambit of license administration.