VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is facing mounting criticism over its continued poor performance in collecting Vacant Land Tax (VLT), even as the financial year 2025-26 comes to a close. A wide gap between demand and recovery, coupled with rising arrears, has raised serious concerns over the civic body’s revenue management.
As per official data, VMC has a total of 14,583 VLT assessments across the city 3,209 in Circle-I, 9,082 in Circle-II, and 2,292 in Circle-III. For the current financial year, the corporation raised a total demand of Rs 225.83 crore, including Rs 202.86 crore in arrears and Rs 22.97 crore as current demand.
However, as of March 29, VMC has managed to collect only Rs 20.30 crore, a mere 4.13% of the total demand. Of this, Rs 10.94 crore was recovered from arrears and Rs 9.36 crore from the current year’s demand. A staggering Rs 205.52 crore still remains pending, including Rs 191.91 crore in arrears and Rs 13.61 crore under the current year.
Officials attribute the poor recovery largely to the inability to trace landowners. Many property owners are either unaware of their dues or have shifted from their registered addresses. In several cases, landowners are residing in other cities, states, or even abroad, making it difficult for VMC staff to locate them and serve notices.
To address these challenges, VMC Commissioner Dhyana Chandra had constituted a special Vacant Land Tax Committee last year with the approval of NTR District Collector G Lakshmisha. The committee aimed to streamline tax recovery and enhance revenue collection.
A coordinated strategy was proposed involving the VMC Revenue and Town Planning wings, along with the District Revenue and Stamps and Registration Departments. The plan included collecting ownership details through registered sale deeds, preparing a comprehensive database of vacant landowners, and issuing notices based on verified addresses.
The Commissioner also directed officials to prepare detailed lists of defaulters categorized by circle, ward, and secretariat, ensure identification of all landowners, enforce strict tax payments regardless of their location, and initiate legal proceedings against persistent defaulters.
Despite these measures and inter-departmental coordination, VLT collections have not shown significant improvement. The continued shortfall highlights gaps in implementation and raises questions over the effectiveness of enforcement on the ground.
With arrears mounting beyond Rs 200 crore and recovery remaining sluggish, pressure is mounting on VMC to adopt technology-driven mechanisms and fix accountability to improve tax compliance and safeguard its financial stability.