Struggling due to losses during the lockdown, Lucknow Municipal Corporation has not been able to meet 50% of its tax collection target from April 1 to June 15. The reason is that LMC does not have the contact numbers of around 2 lakh property owners in the city under its jurisdiction.
This was revealed when the corporation was sending links for payment of property tax on phone numbers of the owners via text messages. The process started in mid-March and ended in June first week. Officers found that the phone numbers of about 2 lakh owners of 2 lakh properties, out of 6 lakh in the city, were either missing or have been changed.
The decision to send the links was taken so that people can pay tax online instead of visiting zonal offices in times of corona. Now, the task remains incomplete three months after the launch, which in turn has hit tax collection.
As per LMC records, Lucknow has around 5.48 lakh households and around 64,000 commercial properties which are liable to pay tax. The tax collection target for 2020-2021 is Rs 410 crore The civic body had to collect around Rs 69 crore from April 1 to June 15, but only Rs 30 crore has been collected so far. This has aggravated financial crisis in LMC which is already reeling under Rs 50 crore loss because of loss of revenue through advertisements, sale of parking lot contracts, ticketing of parks and rent of community/marriage halls during the lockdown period.
Confirming that LMC does not have numbers of 2 lakh property owners, chief tax in charge Ashok Singh said that while updating phone numbers they came to know that many residents had changed their contact numbers.
Subsequently, he added, a door-to-door survey to update records began, but LMC could not contact around 2 lakh property owners for one reason or the other.
Municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi said that the revenue department has been directed to collect contact numbers of these property owners by visiting them individually and serving a notice if they are not found at the given address. The notice will put the onus on the owner to update her/his phone number in LMC records, he said. “The exercise is for the convenience of the people. Those who will not update phone numbers will have to visit LMC zonal offices for payment of taxes,” he added.
