KOCHI: The civic body’s budget proposal to collect tax from buildings in the Cochin Port Trust area in Willington Island will be a major revenue collecting exercise which will strengthen its weak exchequer. Though the proposal was mooted in 2012 with a joint inspection of un-assessed buildings in the Cochin Port Trust(CPT) area, the civic body failed to carry it forward.
As per an earlier estimate of the civic body, there are more than 3,500 door numbers in the area and when the tax collection drive is completed, the Corporation coffers are expected to grow by nothing less than Rs 20 crore.
Deputy Mayor and Finance Committee chairman T.J Vinod had announced in the 2016 – 17 budget that steps would be taken to collect tax from the area as the CPT had leased out many of its properties and buildings to private firms. “The civic body is expected to garner Rs 5 crore through tax collection from such private firms,” T.J Vinod said.
For the past several years, the Corporation was getting only a nominal 30 per cent service tax from the buildings in the Port Trust areas. The buildings had been exempted from remitting tax as per an earlier agreement between the CPT and Corporation.
As most of the buildings in the area have been rented out, leased or licensed by the Port Trust, they were not paying building tax to the Corporation. At a recent meeting convened by the deputy mayor with Port Trust authorities it has been agreed to impose proper tax on buildings leased out by the CPT.
“However, there are ambiguities over the number of buildings currently owned and leased out by the CPT as some of the buildings have been demolished or sub-leased. But, the Corporation is going ahead with the tax collection initiative,” said a top Revenue Department official.
Earlier, the AG’s office had asked the civic body to settle the lapses found in tax collection from the buildings in the Island. According to Revenue officials, the Corporation’s earlier attempts to conduct an assessment drive failed
due to the non-cooperation of the CPT.
