BHUBANESWAR: With several households and business establishments in the city still failing to pay holding tax, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to undertake a fresh GIS survey and property assessment to improve its revenue collection.
BMC sources said this year, the assessment will be done using GIS map and spatial data to cover at least 2 lakh property including all residential, commercial and industrial units. It will cover both old and new property, additional construction in existing property, those with change of use, and unauthorised property.
An official from BMC revenue wing said, “Many households and commercial units have carried out additional construction on their space or have changed their use. All these need to be verified and property tax reassessed to ensure proper collection of the tax.”
Apart from bringing the unassessed units under the tax bracket, the move is also intended at improving the holding/property tax collection by the corporation.
“After realisation of about `101 crore property tax against the target of `119 crore in 2024-25 fiscal, the civic body has now set a target of collecting `140 crore towards property tax in 2025-26,” the official said. BMC officials said an agency will soon be roped in to take up the assessment drive. Once it is selected, the survey will be launched in all wards.