Bhubaneswar: The civic body has targeted the petty tax defaulters of the city to increase its revenue collection, mainly out of holding tax.

The Bhubaneswa Municipal Corporation has come up with a list of tax defaulters in a ward-wise manner and appointed nearly 21 tax collectors to accomplish the job. The tax collectors will visit the defaulters' houses and collect the due amounts from them before March 31.

"We have made the list and put it up on our website. The tax collectors have already swung into action and are visiting the houses to collect the due amounts. We have fixed the targets for them, and at the same time, given them the power to penalise the defaulters," said a civic body official.

According to the list, there are about 205 defaulters identified from as many as 22 wards of the city. The officials are targeting to collect an amount of Rs 3 crore from them both in the fields of current due amounts and arrears.

In January, the civic body had served red notices to the major holding tax defaulters and warned them of dire action if they failed to pay the tax before March 31. The officials had then served notices to about 284 defaulters and targeted a collection of about Rs 9 crore. "We are not going to spare anyone this time. The tax collection is important to undertake various projects in the city. The collected money will only be spent on the service of citizens. We request them to co-operate," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

The housing and urban development department had slammed the civic body twice for low revenue collection, especially from holdings. During a review meeting chaired by chief secretary Aditya Padhi last October, the target had been set for the corporation.

"Revenue mobilisation is one of the important factors for all urban local bodies. Not only the corporation, but also the other urban local bodies of the state are not doing well in revenue collection. Each of them got their targets and was directed to accomplish the same in time," said a department official.

The corporation, while presenting its annual budget for the coming fiscal, set a target of collecting Rs 46.49 crore towards holding tax. "We want to make 100 per cent collection of holding tax this time. The collectors will do the job, and if they fail, action will be taken against them," said another civic official.