The city corporation grossed record revenue of approximately Rs 66 crore as aggregate sum in terms of advertisement tax, property tax, professional tax and entertainment tax during the 2012-13 fiscal.

Till March 31, the corporation collected Rs 1.33 crore as advertisement revenue for 2012-13, which is nearly Rs 20 lakh more than what it had collected during 2011-12. The revenue from entertainment tax crossed Rs 4 crore during this fiscal exceeding the previous year's income by Rs 1.5 crore.

An amount of Rs 26.5 crore was pocketed by the civic body in terms of professional tax. Last year the amount had stood at Rs 25 crore. "It was a good drive this year. We had never collected so much sum," a senior revenue official said. The maximum amount has been recorded in property tax with latest figures on the last day of the financial year showing Rs 34.9 crore. However, the collection in property tax does not show any remarkable increase. The collection during 2011-12 had also stood at Rs 34 crore. The cancellation of property tax that was due to the civic body from Technopark-based companies and series of litigation badly affected the estimated returns. "There are also arrears from government buildings and central government buildings. Although central government buildings were exempted from paying tax, this was not deducted from our demand," a revenue official said.

Demolished buildings, properties under litigation and certain buildings for which the government had issued stay on tax collection also hampered the corporation's plans. "As per our latest calculation, about Rs 25 crore need to be deducted from the total demand. Most of this amount is due from demolished buildings and this hasn't been updated in our system," the official added.

A squad comprising revenue inspector, health inspector and bill collector headed by the corporation secretary will be constituted to speed up the tax collection. "All the buildings under contention and unauthorized buildings will be put into a separate list. By the middle of the next fiscal, we will have an accurate list of actual demand so that we can effectively utilize our manpower for tax collection," said mayor