GMC mounting pressure on house owners for tax dues

Guntur: The Guntur Municipal Corporation (GMC) has decided to go tough on house owners if they do not pay property tax, vacant land tax, water tax and drainage tax dues by March 31. The GMC has already issued red notices to the house owners and warned them that it will cut tap connections if they did not pay tax dues within the stipulated time and recover tax dues under the Revenue Recovery Act.

GMC Commissioner Kirthi Chekuri has swung into action to collect the tax dues. The revenue teams led by the civic chief along with the officials are going to meet building owners, owners of shopping malls, who have yet to pay tax dues to the GMC and request them to pay dues before March 31 to get concession on interest. According to the sources in the GMC, total property tax is Rs 140 crore per annum, out of which the revenue officials have collected only Rs 90 crore so far. Kirthi Chekuri fixed the collection target of Rs One crore for each Revenue Officer in the GMC.

The four ROs in the GMC are collecting more than Rs one crore per day for the last few days. The GMC appealed to the building owners to avail the facility of interest waiver on tax dues. If the house owners paid all the tax dues, they need not pay interest on dues. Similarly, vacant land tax (VLT) dues are increasing in Guntur city. The GMC will get Rs 20 crore through VLT per annum.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Kirthi on Thursday conducted a meeting with the Licensed Technical Engineers at the GMC office. She urged them to see that land owners and house owners will avail the facility of interest waiver on the property dues if the VLT dues are paid in lump sum. She informed that house and vacant land owners will get the interest waiver, if they pay tax dues by March 31. In order to get permission for new construction, land owner or house owner must clear all the tax dues.