Patna, Dec. 22: Pay your holding taxes if you want the sanitation work in the city to continue. This message of the civic body has received positive response from the citizens.

To boost revenue collection from reassessment of holdings in the state capital, Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials have come up with an ingenious plan. Tax collectors of the civic body have started visiting shops and residences, accompanied by sanitation workers, who are armed with buckets full of garbage.

“The sanitation workers request the shop owners and residents to pay taxes, as civic work like garbage collection cannot be sustained if people don’t pay revenue,” said a senior PMC officer.

“The move has paid off. Many people are making on-the-spot payments,” added the officer.

Sources in the civic body claim that there has been a four-fold increase in the collection of holding tax since the scheme began last month. The officer said: “In a month, the daily holding tax collection of the PMC has increased from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.”

On November 14 this year, the civic body had begun the process of re-assessing the holdings in the corporation area. Such an exercise started in the city after more than 10 years. Under this project, 56 teams have been formed to assess the holdings in all four administrative circles — New Capital, Bankipore, Kankerbagh and Patna City — of the corporation. The PMC is also serving notices on holding owners after assessing their property.

“Each team consists of two tax collectors and a Grade IV employee. The teams are also submitting details of annual rental value of at least 10 holdings every day. They have been asked to lay special emphasis on commercial establisments which pay taxes as residential buildings. The owners are being asked to pay the taxes within 21 days of getting the notice,” said a source in the PMC.

Officials in the civic body claim that the move to revamp the database of holdings aims to improve the financial health of the corporation.

“The situation is so bad now that we cannot even pay salaries to our employees. The increase in revenues through an exercise like this is the only way to lessen the burden,” said an official.

At present, there are 1.82 lakh holdings in the city. PMC expects that this exercise will take up the total number of holdings to 3.25 lakh, as new constructions will also come under the tax ambit. The teams had earlier been asked to carry out the exercise for 10 days. However, the PMC commissioner later asked them to continue till each and every holding is assessed properly.