In order to prepare database of properties and identify those who are evading house tax, the state government has appointed five private companies to conduct Geographic Information System (GIS) survey in 14 major cities including Agra.
All properties under the Agra Municipal Corporation (AMC) will be surveyed with the help of GIS. In Agra, the survey is likely to start in September end.
As per records, last updated in 2018, total number of registered properties in the city are 3.20 lakh. At present, around one lakh property owners have no dues pending them.
According to sources, the civic body has not received house tax for years from a large number of property owners, residential and commercial, in all the 100 wards of the city.
For the current financial year 2019-20, the municipal board has set a target for recovering Rs 60 crore house tax. Last year, it collected Rs 55 crore. Now, AMC officials are making all the efforts to ensure that the target is met.
Municipal commissioner Arun Prakash said, “GIS is a computer system capable of holding and using data describing places on the earth’s surface. GIS allows to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyse spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.”
Prakash said, “For the first time, city is going to have a GIS survey. It will be conducted by a private agency appointed by the Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES). The exercise is aimed at verifying the available records of premises in 100 wards of the city and identifying the remaining ones.”