Cuttack, Dec. 7: The municipal corporation has decided to act tough on those who are not paying municipal dues, including holding taxes, on a regular basis.

"The properties of such defaulters will be sealed and auctioned, if required, to recover the arrears," municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph.

The civic body has already started the process of setting up a dedicated special certificate court to take legal action against the defaulters under the Orissa Public Demand Recovery (OPDR) Act, 1962.

The deputy commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), Radha Krushna Rout, has been designated as the special certificate officer based on the direction of revenue divisional commissioner A.B. Ota.

Earlier, the district magistrate was the sole certificate officer for recovering dues if the total arrears were above Rs 25 lakh and sub-collector for taking required steps for arrears below Rs 25 lakh.

With the appointment of the deputy commissioner as special certificate officer, the civic body can take legal action against all the defaulters of various municipal dues, including holding taxes and other services.

"The certificate court will start functioning next week and the process of identifying the defaulters of holding tax, hoardings and shop rent has already begun," said Das.

The deputy commissioner told The Telegraph that already over 250 defaulters have been served notices under Section 17 of OPDR Act and rule 11 of OPDR Rule, 1963.

Official sources said the move was likely to streamline the process of collection of holding tax, as many residents had not paid dues even once to the corporation for the past 25 years and more.

"According to provisions, defaulters started being sent letters since Monday asking them to clear the pending dues. They have to clear their dues within 15 days of receiving the letters failing which a case under OPDR will be registered for recovery of the arrears," said Rout.

Rout said preliminary assessment revealed that holding tax dues worth Rs 1.5 crore were still pending against several persons under the corporation limits.

Four special squads, led by engineers as well as tax collectors, have been formed to reassess the properties of individuals as well as institutions in all the 59 wards of the corporation.

In a bid to encourage voluntary holding tax payments, the corporation has also started to provide a rebate of 5 per cent on advance payments for the next financial year.

The corporation aims to collect Rs 7 crore as revenue from holding taxes from all 59 wards in the city.

"Most of progress has been made in ensuring that residents pay their holding taxes to the corporation and already Rs 5. 5 crore have been collected and the revenue collection is likely to go up by the end of the current financial year in March 2017," Rout said.