Residents will soon be able to pay their holding (property) tax at post offices.

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the Bihar circle of India Post are in talks to start the process. Holding tax can be paid either at civic centres, ward office or online.

"We are in talks with the postal department to facilitate payment of holding tax through post offices. This move is aimed at increasing the ambit of holding tax coverage as people would get an additional option for paying taxes near their homes," Patna mayor Afzal Imam said.

Non-payment of holding tax has been a major issue faced by the cash-strapped PMC. According to sources, the civic body is expected to have suffered losses around Rs 70 crore per annum over the past few years accruing to non-payment of holding taxes by owners of residential as well commercial properties.

The PMC is estimated to have been suffering such huge revenue due to non-assessment of an estimated 2.5 holdings, which have not been covered under the holding tax ambit. Though Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, envisages general survey of holdings after a period of five years, the same has not been done in the PMC area since 1996. "We have records of around 3 lakh holdings in the city but 2 lakh holdings are not registered. In 2015, around 1 lakh people had filed property tax returns, of which around 5,5000 were already registered with us and remaining 3,5000 people were new holdings. The remaining 1 lakh people registered with us did not pay the property taxes," said a senior PMC official.

Mayor Afzal Imam corroborated the claims of non-payment of holding tax. "We have 3 lakh houses registered with us but 30 per cent of them are paying holding taxes. As a result, the revenue collection is quite low," said Imam.

PMC has set the target of Rs 80 crore to be collected through holding tax in the ongoing fiscal (2015-16), which was Rs 70 crore in the previous fiscal (2014-15).