BHUBANESWAR: After failing to meet its tax collection target last year, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to conduct a survey in all wards to find the exact number of holding tax and trade licence fee defaulters and collect taxes through Self Help Groups (SHGs).
The civic body has sought Expression of Interest from interested SHGs in this regard by October 16. The SHGs shortlisted through a competitive bidding will be engaged at ward level for survey and tax collection. The SHGs will be required to depute their members to carry out the survey of households and trade licence holders in each ward and collect holding taxes trade licence fee from them.
For every `40 lakh collected, the selected SHGs will get one per cent i.e `40,000 towards commission.
Officials in BMC said the survey is expected to help the Corporation improve its revenue collection and meet tax collection target in a given year. A BMC official said last year revenue collection of BMC stood at `101 crore of which the combined share of holding tax and trade licence fee was nearly 41 per cent. However, the tax collection was not encouraging as against the target of around `45 crore the civic body could collect only `37 crore towards holding tax. The collection of trade licence fee was also dismal.
Sources in BMC said currently only around one lakh households are paying holding tax and around 15,000 vendors and businessmen paying trade licence fees. As per the existing list, defaulters are yet to pay holding tax and trade licence fee of around `9.3 crore to the civic body.
The BMC officials admitted that lack of manpower and more responsibility on existing field staff is affecting revenue collection. They, however, said roping in SHGs is expected to bring positive changes in tax collection. The survey will also help bring out the actual number of defaulters of holding tax and trade licence fee.