With less than two months remaining for 2019-20 financial year to end, the Agra Municipal Corporation (AMC) administration has swung into action to recover house tax.
The civic body administration has issued legal notices to 550 property owners having over Rs 1 lakh as pending property tax dues. The total amount of pending dues with these property owners is around Rs 8 crore. Civic body administration has asked the defaulters to clear their outstanding dues within seven days or else their property will be seized.
There are around 3.10 lakh properties registered across 100 wards of the city. In the current fiscal, so far, only 50,000 property owners have submitted their house tax totaling Rs 35 crore. This is way short of the annual target of Rs 65 crore.
The AMC revenue officials have shortlisted major defaulters of four zones in the city. In Hariparwat, Lohamandi, Chatta and Tajganj zone, there are a total of 550 of defaulters, each having accumulated over Rs 1 lakh as dues. A majority of these property owners have not paid any tax to the civic body in the last three years.
Municipal commissioner Arun Prakash said, “We are issuing final notices to major property tax defaulters. If they fail to clear the dues in a time-bound manner, then an exercise to seize their property will be initiated.”
To increase revenue recovery and bring transparency in collection of house tax, AMC administration has launched an android based tax collection app.
Last month, revenue inspectors were provided smart handheld devices. Connected to the civic body’s central server, these devices allow revenue inspectors to issue on-the-spot receipt to the property owners. Besides, the central survey will also send a message of receiving payment on the registered mobile number of the client concerned.
According to the municipal commissioner, the new tax collection system will leave no scope for any malpractice in the tax collection process. The 100 android-based handheld devices have been provided to the AMC by Axis Bank as part of the corporate social responsibility.
