TIRUPATI: Finally, the Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) has pulled up its socks to improve tax collections including property tax and water charges in the pilgrim town. The town has 41,463 private and 1128 government properties.Interestingly, the central and state government departments are the ones delaying the payment of property tax compared to private establishments.Particularly, the Devasthanams including the TTD is having heavy pending arrears of property tax payable to the municipal corporation. The civic body had collected taxes worth Rs 4.60 crore against the total amount of Rs 8.7 crore as on December 10.According to revenue officer KL Sharma, the municipal corporation has collected 63 per cent of the total property tax. "We are confident that the collection will reach 90 per cent before the deadline which is January 30," he said.Speaking to Express on the special efforts the municipal corporation is taking to speed up property tax collection, he said that the tax payers have been divided into three categories based on their income: below 15,000, 15,000 to one lakh and above one lakh.The revenue personnel will meet those with dues worth Rs 15,000 while those having dues above Rs 15,000 will have to pay their taxes on their own.Meanwhile, revenue officers themselves will personally meet tax payers whose dues have mounted over Rs 1 lakh and ask them to pay the tax on time to not attract penalty.On the other hand, the corporation is also issuing notices to people demanding them to pay their taxes within seven days.Also, the civic body has informed that three days prior taking stringent action against tax evaders under section 269 and 270 of AP municipal act of 1955, water and underground drainage system (UDS)connections will be severed, KL Sharma said.He said that collecting taxes from from individuals or commercial establishments was not a problem. However, they are having a tough time collecting taxes from government offices.Due to the delay in issuing notices to tax payers following a revision of tax, the corporation has extended the last date for payment of property tax to January 31, 2012. The property tax hike has jolted many people who think that the increase in abnormal and therefore, have applied for revision.One look at the list of property tax payers shows that 39 state government offices, apart from Devasthanams, have to pay a whopping Rs 2.47 crore including arrears worth Rs 2.18 crore and current tax worth Rs 29 lakh.SV Medical College tops the list of arrears, with Rs 67.49 lakh, followed by APSRTC Rs 35.78, SV University with Rs 32.32 lakh and R B department with Rs 17.38 lakh. Some of the state government institutions which do not have any pending arrears are TUDA and AP state finance corporation.Even central government departments have proved themselves worthy to compete in the ratrace with South Central Railways (SCR) leading the herd with Rs 28.29 lakh arrears, followed by Sanskrit Vidayapeetham Rs 19.59 lakh and postal department with Rs 11.37 lakh. What took most of them by surprise was the TTD. Even funds have pending arrears worth Rs 9.56 crore, which has heavy dues payable to the municipal corporation. The TTD has to pay another Rs 1.18 crore dues of current tax to the civic body.A state government official said that the government institutions pay their taxes late because there is a delay in receiving the tax amount from their head office.There is no exception even in case of water charges. SV University has due worth Rs 45.95 lakh, SCR with Rs 30.19 lakh, SV medical college Rs 27.12 lakh. The Airport Authority of India which had to pay arrears worth Rs 21.75 lakh had paid Rs 6 lakh recently, after water supply to the office was disconnected, said a government official and added that the postal department has to pay water charges dues worth Rs 8 lakh.Grama panchayats tell another tale. Though panchayats are collecting water charges from residents for drinking water supply, they are not paying the amount promptly to the corporation. MR Palli panchayat has to pay water charges dues worth Rs 35.55 lakh while LS Nagar Rs 21.17 lakh and Renigunta Rs 11.97 lakh.
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