MCC offers 5% discount, collects Rs 56 crore tax in a month

The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has collected property tax amounting to Rs 56 crore in a month and the officials are hopeful of reaching the target by the end of 2018-19 financial year (FY).

The MCC had offered 5% discount to property owners who pay tax in the month of April, the first month of the FY. Owing to the concession, owners of commercial and residential buildings and also site owners came forward to pay the taxes, say officials.

The civic body has targetted to collect Rs 122 crore tax in 2018-19 FY, as mentioned in the budget. MCC Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) T B Kumara Naik said that the MCC offered a discount as per the guidelines in the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, and it was limited to April. Between January and March 2018 , the authorities have collected only Rs 15 crore. Despite issuing notices and warnings of legal action, not many property owners paid the taxes.

It is difficult to fix a target for tax collection and the authorities fix it based on the previous year’s collections. During 2017-18 financial year, the MCC had received Rs 102 crore as tax. Compared to 2016-17 FY, the tax collection was high in 2017-18. By the end of April 2017, the authorities had collected only Rs 41 crore.

“This time, we had a target to collect Rs 50 crore and have achieved the target. We have received a good response from the people,” he said.

According to the officials, collection of tax is a challenging task and the target cannot be reached every year. “We collect less tax and the situation is same this time too. But, we will reach the target,” an official said.

Steps for collection

As the MCC has no online tax payment system, the authorities had established a separate counter for the benefit of taxpayers at the MCC office. To improve the tax collection, the authorities will launch campaigns in future.