Development work in the city is likely to take a hit as Lucknow Municipal Corporation has failed to achieve its property tax collection target for the fourth consecutive month in July.
LMC suffered a Rs 50-crore loss during the lockdown as its revenue through advertisements, sale of parking lot contracts, ticketing of parks and rent of community/marriage halls dried up. It had to divert the 14th Finance Commission grant meant for various development projects to meet salary expenses. Efforts to ramp up revenue thorough new ways have not materialised yet.
The civic body’s failure to meet tax collection target may render a further blow to development activities.
LMC’s tax collection target for April, May and June 30 was Rs 17 crore, Rs 10 crore and Rs 42 crore respectively. No collection was done in April and May due to lockdown. In June, about Rs 36 crore was collected—Rs 6 crore less than the target.
Till July 25, Rs 15.2 crore was collected—Rs 4.3 crore less than the target. Total tax collection till July 25 has been Rs 37.3 crore (42%) less than the target of Rs 88.5 crore.
Municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi said, “Due to surge in coronavirus cases, our employees are not able to visit areas to collect taxes. I request taxpayers to pay their property tax through the link sent by us on the owner’s mobile number.”
However, LMC does not have the contact numbers of around 2 lakh property owners.
