The Mysore City Corporation's property tax collection is on course. With five months left of the financial year, the corporation has collected Rs 45 crore - or, 58% - of the Rs 77.54-crore budget forecast. Now, it's looking at widening the tax net by targeting some 30,000 properties which were outside the purview all this while.
Property tax is a revenue stream for the corporation, contributing nearly 16% of the Rs 423.15-crore budget.
Towards this end, the MCC is launching a month-long revenue-collection drive across 65 wards and expects to rake in Rs 15 crore in that period. Commissioner M R Ravi said the corporation will set up 39 special counters across nine zones.
The MCC has 1.72 lakh tax-paying properties. But a GIS survey revealed 30,000 more which have not been paying taxes. The MCC seeks to bring these properties under the tax net now.
In 2011-12, the civic body collected 91% of the Rs 70.88-crore property tax target. Revenue collection improved dramatically after the MCC adopted the web-based system. The civic body has logged more than 90% collection in the past three years.
Property tax has a much better collection graph than that of water tax. The MCC has projected revenues of Rs 50 crore through water tax and will regularize 35,000 illegal connections to bring in more money.
During the month-long drive, the MCC seeks to generate Rs 3.69 crore by way of trade-licence fees and Rs 33 lakh through rent collection from traders.
Property tax revision soon?
The Mysore City Corporation is considering a revision of property tax after January. As per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, the property tax can be revised once in three years. "It's due for a revision, but we are not sure about an increase," Ravi said.
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