In addition to the loss of the finance commission grant due to delay in conduct of elections to local bodies, poor tax collections are likely to stall development projects in the state.
The revenue wings in the civic bodies could collect only 33% of the total demand during the current fiscal leaving many towns and cities in tatters.
With 12 days left to complete the financial year, the authorities in the civic bodies are on their toes to mop up dues from property owners.
Special teams have been constituted to collect balance taxes in many towns. The municipal commissioners have been directed to review the situation on a daily basis as the situation is slipping from bad to worse.
With shops, malls and hotels are facing closure or restricted operations due to fears about the spread of coronavirus in the next few days, the officials are trying to recover the taxes to the maximum extent possible.
Pulivendula, the home town of chief minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, however, has logged nearly 70% of the property tax demand. Although Pulivendula is a small town with total property tax demand of Rs 3.88 crore, the authorities have collected nearly Rs 2.77 crore by Wednesday.
Property tax collections in many cities including Greater Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur are below 40% which could derail development plans. The tax collections in Visakhapatnam are the lowest among the big cities—25% of the total demand by Wednesday.
“Although it is a normal practice that majority of the taxes are collected in the last one week of the fiscal, we are worried that the economic slowdown might impact the final stretch of collections too,” said a senior official in the municipal administration department.
