An aerial view of Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 3: The civic body has decided to work overtime to meet the holding tax collection target of Rs 23 crore this year.

The civic body has so far been able to collect only Rs 10 crore. Civic officials, however, are confident about meeting the target by the end of March.

The officials said that this year, they had targeted to collect holding tax of Rs 3 crore more than the previous financial year.

In 2012-13, the corporation had collected Rs 20 crore as holding tax. The corporation officials said that lack of manpower had been the main hindrance in their achievement of the target of holding tax collection. At present, around 50 field staff have been involved in tax collection, which, they consider, is very insufficient for the entire city.

The officials, however, are hopeful to achieve the target before the end of the current fiscal by working overtime.

Official sources said that last year, 82,000 holdings or assessed houses had been covered under the umbrella of holding tax collection.

“We have added 6,000 new holdings till date and hope to add 6,000 more making the total holdings around 94,000 by the end of this financial year. This would help us meet our target,” said additional commissioner in charge of tax collection Krushna Prasad Pati.

A sources in the municipal corporation said Bhubaneswar, that had been growing exponentially, had around 2 lakh dwelling units. If the 30,000 slum units are kept aside, there are about 1.7 lakh houses, which are liable to pay holding tax. However, the annual holding tax collection is not exceeding Rs 22 crore.

“We had planned to increase the number of eligible houses and collect holding tax from these houses,” said an official. Besides, the officials said that the tax collection had been done according to the old assessment, which was very low in comparison to today’s standard of living. They said this method of collection had also affected the overall tax collection of the corporation.

Though a new rate was notified in December 2012, it has not been made effective till date. Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said he would give more importance on tax collection, particularly holding tax collection.

“Holding tax collection can be a major source of income for the corporation, which we need to look into more. We have to bring more households under this tax purview to increase holding tax. My target during this period will be to look all possible options for boosting revenue sources,” said Jena.