HYDERABAD: As the department of municipal administration and urban development (MAUD) is readying to levy property tax in newly- constituted urban local bodies (ULBs) from April 1, the commissioner and director of municipal administration (CDMA) has expressed his unhappiness with 16 ULBS for not furnishing the copies of district gazette.
The ULBs which have not furnished the copy of district gazette are Warangal (corporation), Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Kodad and Miryalaguda (municipalities), and Parakal, Madhira, Huzurabad, Husnabad, Huzuranagar, Devarakonda, Ibrahimpatnam, Gajwel, Kollapur, Leeja and Kalwakurhty (nagar panchayats).
The regional director-cum-appellate commissioners of municipal administration have been asked by the CDMA to take immediate steps and issue instructions to the above ULBs and submit a copy of the gazette and ensure to complete whole town basis survey and computerisation of data and issue of special notices by March 31 by ULBs without fail. It can be mentioned here that the state government had issued instructions in September last year for levy and fixation of property tax from April 1, 2015.
As per the schedule issued in December last year, the final notification in Form-A should be published in the district gazette by the end of February 2015.
Out of the 31 ULBS, only 15 have furnished a copy of district gazette. Even after the lapse of three months, the 16 ULBs have not submitted a copy of district gazette which is unsatisfactory as the levy of property tax is provision of statutory which needs time-bound action for proper implementation.
It was observed that the Madhira nagar panchayat has not yet taken any action for publication of final gazette notification while in certain cases, the municipal commissioners concerned inform that the file is with respective the district collector concerned.The CDMA asked the municipal commissioners to get the approval of district collectors in person as it is a statutory time-bound action programme.
Some ULBs said the survey of whole town basis, which was to be completed in January this year, is still in progress, followed by computerisation and issue of special notices, so far none of the action has been completed by the ULBs.
The RDMAs have been asked to deploy personnel from other ULBs for the time being to complete the data entry and issue special notices to tax payers.