ROURKELA: After earning the Smart City tag, Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) is now focusing on augmenting holding tax recovery. The Corporation has initiated action against big defaulters, including Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital.
RMC sources said the focus is on maximising collection of various taxes to provide better services to the people. As a first step, RMC is gearing up to assess all tangible real estate assets before imposition of property tax in the RMC limits. There are enough indications about under-recovery of revenue from real estate assets in shape of holding tax. Action is also being taken against big defaulters.
On September 3, RMC had slapped a demand notice on Hi-Tech Medical of Bigyan Bharati Charitable Trust for recovery of outstanding dues above `19.5 lakh for 2015-16 and 2016-17. The notice had warned of attachment of movable property of Hi-tech medical, but following a request from the authorities concerned, RMC has agreed to hold a second hearing for reassessment of dues.
Rourkela ADM and RMC Administrator Monisha Bannerjee said the civic body is coming up with new development projects. The RMC has potential to enhance its revenue collection and fresh survey of real estate property would be taken up both manually and through GIS (Geographic Information System) mapping for property tax.
Of about 61,000 households, RMC has just around 16,000 holding tax payers. There are allegations that a large number of owners have put their property to commercial use but are paying nominal holding tax.
The corporation had last year received around `4.83 crore as revenue. Till November this year, the collection was around `6 crore, due to the effect of demonetisation.
RMC Commissioner AK Mallick said of the `6 crore collected so far, about ` 1.5 crore was received in old banned currencies during the special drive till November 24. The RMC has also sought 40 PoS machines for electronic receipts of various taxes and shop rents, he added.