Coimbatore Corp mops up 43% of Rs 960 crore tax target so far

COIMBATORE: With three months left for the end of the financial year(FY), Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has managed to collect around 43% (Rs 308.17 cr) of the tax demand of Rs 960.52 crore. Overall, the CCMC has managed to collect about 32% of the total tax demand, including the arrears, till January 5.

The CCMC is the second largest corporation in the state, after the Greater Chennai Corporation, and generates the second highest revenue after Chennai through taxes.With the FY 2022-23 ending by March 31, the civic body has only managed to collect around 32% of the total demand and the officials have cited tax revision for the delay. “The property tax was revised this by the state government last April, due to which we had to put tax collection on hold for several months due to various reasons, including nod from the council, the officials said.

The officials said that a total of Rs 308.17 crore tax revenue was collected till January 5 out of the total demand of Rs 960.52 crore, including the arrears till January 5. As far as the current FY’s demand is concerned, the CCMC has managed to collect 43% of the total demand of Rs 543.99 crore.A total of 5,50,258 property tax and 3,12,040 water tax assessments are done by the CCMC.

Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Deputy Commissioner Dr M Sharmila said that they have already expedited the tax collections and will collect the full demand by the end of this FY, adding that only the arrears have been delayed and they have managed to collect about half of the current year’s demand. “As the tax collection was revised this year, the collection was delayed and the civic body has now appointed 100 Bill Collectors (BC) for all 100 wards in the city to expedite the tax collection works and meet the target. Earlier, we used to have only about 60 to 63 BCs with us.

With additionally appointed BCs, tax collection has been intensified and expedited,” she said, adding, “We have also taken a list of tax defaulters in each of the 100 wards in the city and have asked the officials to collect the taxes from them at the earliest. We shall collect the demand fully as the officials have been given individual targets.”