Madurai city corporation has jumped five places from 16th to 11th rank in total revenue and property tax collection among 20 corporations in the state in the first half-yearly cycle.
According to corporation officials, the monthly average of total tax and non-tax revenue collection of the civic body has improved from ’32 crore in 2022-23 to ’38 crore this year. A total of ‘ 138 crore has been collected till August.
An amount of around ’90 crores has been collected as property tax in the first five months of the financial year while a total of ‘156 crore was collected in the 2022-23 financial year.
As more than half of the property tax has been collected before the first half of the financial year, the corporation is confident that the total collection will go up this financial year.
The tax incentive announced by the state government for those who pay property tax dues before April 30 has helped the civic body collect about 35% of its total dues of the first half-yearly tax cycle. In April alone, the corporation collected around ₹ 18 crore of around ₹ 50 crore total dues. Normally 10%-15% of the dues will be collected in the first month, said the officials.
During the financial year 2022-23, Madurai city corporation collected almost 77% of property tax, making it 16th in the overall ranking in the state. Revenue officials are confident that the corporation will collect more than 85% this year.
Corporation commissioner K J Praveen Kumar told that “intensive collection drive, special drive for arrears collection, enlisting of top defaulters in each zone and taking strict actions on them, erroneous tax correction and the recent 5% incentive for early tax payers have helped the civic body move up five places in the overall property tax collection.
” The central zone tops in tax collection while the west zone is at the bottom.
Therefore, special initiatives have been taken for both the west and east zones to increase the number of tax assesses as many new buildings have been constructed in the added areas, said a senior revenue official.