BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has identified 31 big holding tax defaulters, whose combined dues have piled up to over Rs 45 crore. It has warned them of stringent action as per the municipal law if they fail to pay the dues immediately.
A BMC official said the corporation has identified five each defaulters in southeast and southwest zones whose dues are above Rs 1 crore. Six such defaulters have also been identified in the north zone. Similarly, another 15 defaulters, three in southeast, five in southwest and seven in north zone have been identified whose pending dues are above Rs 50 lakh, he said.
Ranjeeta Stedeo Industries with a due of over Rs 2.41 crore is the highest defaulter in southeast zone, while SJ Charitable Trust with over Rs 5 crore due is the top defaulter in north zone. Lifeline Multi Ventures Pvt Ltd with a due of around Rs 7 crore is the largest defaulter in the southwest zone, BMC officials said.
They said the executive engineer (R&B) division III and division IV in the southeast zone also have a property tax due of Rs 89 lakh and Rs 70 lakh respectively. The regional controller of Mines, Indian Bureau of Mines in the southwest zone also has a holding tax due of Rs 54 lakh.
The defaulters’ list also includes names of some of the educational and healthcare institutes.
“These defaulters are utilising all the services offered by the corporation but are still not paying the holding tax. Please pay the taxes failing which strict action will be taken,” the BMC stated while making the big defaulters’ list public on social media platform Instagram.
The civic body had recently launched a 15-day tax assessment drive for households and traders to identify the holding tax defaulters and speed of the tax collection process as the collection till February was only around Rs 40 crore against the annual target of Rs 100 crore for 2024-25.