Bhubaneswar, Dec. 15: The municipal corporation has decided to take the help of police to identify residents who have rented out their houses but continue to pay holding tax by showing them as residential buildings.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken the decision to increase its collection from holding tax.

Owners have to pay seven times the holding tax if they rent out their houses. Hence, many owners do not tell the BMC that they have rented out their properties, an official said. He said that they had already written to the deputy commissioner of police, Bhubaneswar, to access information about residents who have rented out their houses.

In April this year, the police had made it mandatory for landlords to register their tenants with the police stations concerned. The police had taken the decision to prevent crimes and ensure the safety of senior citizens who remain vulnerable to crimes, many of them committed by tenants.

According to the public notification issued by the police, the owner and the tenant would have to submit a declaration form with the police station concerned. The declaration form would have the signatures of both the landlord and the tenant, along with particulars such as the tenant's permanent address and occupation, phone number of both of the parties and a photocopy of any of the tenant's identity proofsuch as passport, driving licence, voter card, PAN card or ration card.

BMC officials said that a number of city residents who had listed their houses as rented ones with the police have kept the information secret from the civic body with the intention of evading the appropriate holding tax.

Additional commissioner of BMC Sudhansu Mohan Samal said: "The civic body is going to take serious action against the residents receiving all benefits from the civic body, but in return doing little towards paying their taxes."

BMC is losing out on a huge amount of holding tax as most of the holdings are shown as residential. A small number of holdings are shown as commercial and rental by house owners. Now, there are more than 1.25 lakh taxable holdings in the city.

Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said that appropriate action would be taken after they get the letter from the civic body.

BMC had collected a record Rs 25 crore as holding tax in 2014-15, while the holding tax collection was Rs 20.2 crore in 2013-14. The holding tax collection has increased after the civic body decided to publish the names of the defaulters in public places. Last year, it had made public the names of 238 tax evaders by putting up hoardings in the city.