ONGOLE : Even after the State government issuing orders for waiver off interest on the arrears of property tax up to the financial year 2023-24 as a one-time measure in both municipalities and municipal corporations, the revenue wing of Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC) was able to collect around Rs 26.63 crore, which is 64.49% of targeted Rs 41.30 crore.
Attributing various reasons, OMC commissioner M Jaswantha Rao explained that the stringent measures taken against the tax defaulters showed marginal impact on the tax collections. He said that since the MCC came into force, the officials were occupied with the election works, resulting in a slowdown of tax collection.
Last fiscal year, the OMC had collected around Rs 30.77 crore, which is 13.43% higher than the current fiscal that ended on March 31. The OMC has 61,835 tax assessments comprising around 7,200 commercial assessments and the actual demand is around Rs 41.30 crore and with the previous due tax amount at around Rs 14 crore totaling the outstanding due to Rs 55.70 crore.
To collect this outstanding amount, the OMC commissioner deployed special tax collection teams led by all eight Revenue Inspectors (RIs). With the coordination of the Ward Secretariat volunteers, the teams conducted door-to-door campaigns and created awareness among the households regarding the tax payments. The OMC teams majorly focused on the Commercial assessment units which had around Rs 15 crore tax dues.
“We will focus on the next financial year’s advance tax payments and wait for the 5% tax rebate scheme announcement by the government,” OMC manager Sri Hari told TNIE on Wednesday.