Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation has failed to meet its tax collection target.

The housing and urban development department had reviewed the performance of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation last month and slammed it for low collection of taxes including holding tax, trade licence, advertisement, user charges, parking fees, rent from markets, crematorium fees and more.

Sources said till September the corporation had fulfilled only 23 per cent of its tax collection target.

Sources in the corporation said that from March to September the revenue collection target of the corporation was Rs 129.83 crore, but it has managed to collect only Rs 29.52 crore. The urban and housing development department has termed the collection as "far less than the target".

During the same period, the holding tax collection was Rs 9.96 crore against a target of Rs 60 crore. In view of poor collection of taxes, the state government has asked the corporation to pull up its socks.

"During the review meeting, it was revealed that the corporation has failed to undertake new assessment and re-assessment of holdings, leading to poor tax collection. The trade license coverage was also inadequate," a state government official said.

Suggesting measures for better performance, the department has ordered the corporation to intensify assessment of uncovered holdings. It has also asked for fixing monthly targets for tax collectors and weekly review of their performance. It has suggested action against those failing to meet targets.

The corporation has been asked to file monthly performance report on the fifth day of every month failing which action will be taken against the civic body.

Admitting the drawback, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said: "We will hold special tax collection drives and also make efforts to introduce property tax to boost revenue collection," said Jena.

WHY THE DROP

Corporation yet to introduce property tax in place of holding tax
Once implemented, collection will almost double
New assessment will increase holdings from 73,000 to over a lakh
Present collection low as many of houses are not mapped as per their size
Delay in introduction of online holding tax payment for all wards
Lack of special drive to recover revenue
GIS mapping of billboards done, but several smaller hoardings continue to escape tax net
Collection of parking fees low as only 19 of 76 parking lots are operational
Collection of user fees remains a problem due to absence of awareness about it