VIJAYAWADA: The VMC earned a staggering Rs 14.86 crore in revenue in a span of just 14 days — after the residents were allowed to pay their pending tax dues with old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Though the Central government on Thursday extended the deadline to pay public utility arrears till December 15, officials of the VMC did not confirm the development.
According to the data available with VMC officials, the corporation’s tax revenue never looked healthier until November 8, as the third quarter of the fiscal was almost nearing completion. Once the acceptance of demonetised currencies was announced, the tax realisation graph witnessed a steady upward trend.
“We used the grace period given by the Central government to make the taxpayers fall in line. The decision to extend the period till November 14 has helped the civic body as well as the public. On November 11 alone, the civic body earned Rs 4.80 crore high tax collection since demonetisation,” said municipal commissioner G Veerapandian. Interestingly, the VMC is lagging behind in generation of revenue through scrapped notes. Kakinada is the only civic body in the State that stands in the top ten list of a survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Urban Development. A whopping Rs 23.5 crore was garnered by the Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) through the payment of public utility arrears since demonetisation.