Visakhapatnam: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation has recorded a growth in its property tax collection till date in 2017 fiscal compared to the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
The corporation has generated property tax revenue of Rs 121.70 crore so far this fiscal so far compared to Rs 90.6 crore in the corresponding period of 2016-17. It has also improved on the collection of water tax and vacant land tax fronts this year.
GVMC commissioner M. Hari Narayanan told media persons here on Wednesday that they were focusing on tax collection to improve the revenue of the corporation so that infrastructure and civic amenities could be improved and provided to all when the city population is rapidly growing touching about 23 lakh.
Generating good revenue through proper tax collection would help largely to spur the growth of the city.
“We have to meet the expenditures under the heads of employee salaries, electricity charges, etc. from tax collections only. The process of tax collection should be a 365 day exercise rather than limiting to drives in a few months,” said the civic body head.
Mr Hari Narayanan also clarified that the corporation is not diverting revenue collected from various taxes to the Vizag smart city project.
“The project budget under smart city is borne by both state and Union governments. While the Union government provides Rs 500 crore, the state government releases a matching grant of Rs 500 crore. Some projects would be realised in the PPP model,” the GVMC chief said.
“The GVMC has not allocated any funds for the Smart City project and if necessary, some minor works will be taken up on the GVMC front,” said Mr Narayanan.
He said that they have collected Rs 121 crore as water tax, including bulk and semi-bulk water taxes, in 2016-17, this year they have set up a target of collecting Rs 130 crore in 2017-18.
