Cuttack, Oct. 15: The civic administration is set to initiate legal proceedings against organisations and individuals who have dodged paying hoarding tax and rent arrears for shops in a bid to recover unpaid dues.

Tax arrears for hoardings and billboards and rent arrears for shops that the civic body has rented out have climbed to over Rs 2 crore.

The corporation will shortly file 'certificate cases' against the defaulters who have ignored its repeated demand notices and reminders. When a certificate case is filed, the person or the organisation runs the risk of seizure of bank accounts and payment of interest till the dues are cleared.

"For the first time, we have designated an officer of the rank of deputy commissioner as special certificate officer for the purpose. He will facilitate the legal proceedings under the Odisha Public Demand Recovery (OPDR) Act," municipal commissioner Gyana Das told The Telegraph.

The civic body has already drawn up a list of 56 defaulters who have not remitted their hoarding tax arrears, despite being served demand notices.

"We resolved to take the legal route as the defaulters did not make the payment despite repeated notices," the Das said.

Earlier this year, the civic body had written to the state government to authorise the special certificate officer to file certificate cases against individuals and organisations who evaded paying hoarding tax, rents, municipal taxes and other licence fees under the OPDR Act.

The revenue divisional commissioner (central) last month sanctioned the corporation's recommendation designating deputy commissioner Radha Krushna Rout as special certificate officer.

Under the prevailing system, complaints for certificate cases for recovery of arrears has to be filed before the collector or his designated officer - sub-collector. Civic officials said one of the outcomes of such cases could take years.

"We will streamline and expedite the collection of arrears as we now have a designated special certificate officer who is authorised to deal exclusively with the corporation's certificate cases," said deputy mayor Ajay Barik, who also heads the standing committee for finance and taxes.

Barik said: "Non-payment of rent for shops by a large number of tenants has taken a toll on our earnings."

The civic body had rented out 800-odd shops in 28 places, of which around 350 occupants have not been paying rent. At some places, tenants have not paid rent since they took possession more than 10 years ago (between 2001 and 2006). The civic body has also not received rent from tenants at one place since 2005 and another since 2008 when they were given possession, official sources said.

The civic body had earlier set an annual target to collect Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh from unpaid rent. But, only 60 per cent of the target had been met in the past five years. In the last fiscal, the recovery was less than Rs 15 lakh.