BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has offered 5% discount on current holding tax dues for the assessment year 2022-23 if paid before April 30.
The current financial year started from April 1 and the idea behind offering discounts from the beginning of the year is to mop up some extra revenue and help people unburden themselves by paying the tax with a discount.
In last financial year (2021-22), the civic body fetched Rs 62 crore in holding tax revenue. The BMC hopes to bring to its coffer another Rs 8 crore in the special drive that runs from Monday. To ensure this, BMC has set up 22 collection points, where ward officers will be deployed.
BMC deputy commissioner (revenue) Srimanta Mishra said the big holdings (houses such as residential complexes, flats, commercial complexes, offices and malls and other institutions) will benefit from the special drive because they have big amounts to pay.
“If somebody has Rs 1 lakh to pay in the current assessment year, he will get Rs 5,000 discount. People will be attracted to the scheme. Even in case of small holdings, people get some financial respite,” he said.
The BMC has altogether 1.10 holdings out of which BMC gets tax amount from around 70% of them with remaining 30% being defaulters.
The civic body had enumerated around 73,000 holdings in 2017. It engaged a private agency to include the holdings that were beyond the tax net. The private agency had then given list of more than 1 lakh holdings.
The transgender community, engaged by the BMC, also played a big role by collecting dues from defaulters.
