The Hindu : MCH to come up with prizes for taxpayers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

MCH to come up with prizes for taxpayers

By V. Geetanath

HYDERABAD, JAN.17. In order to meet the target of collecting an all-time high of Rs. 170 crores from property tax during the current financial year, the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) is planning to introduce prizes for the taxpayers paying property tax between January 23 and February 22 through the lottery method.

The corporation, which realised about Rs. 130 crores the previous year upped it by about Rs. 45 crores this year and is confident of reaching the target by March 31. "The prize scheme is for people who pay property tax in full with arrears and interest. The idea is to motivate them to pay it on time and avoid penalties later," says the MCH Commissioner, Chitra Ramachandran.

Taxpayers making payments during the period mentioned above would be given a coupon along with the receipt. The coupon has to be filled and dropped in the box provided at the eSeva centres and the corporation offices. Counterfoil of the coupon has to be retained and produced at the time of claiming the prize divided into four different categories.

One first prize has a cash award of Rs. 25,000; two-second prizes get a cash award of Rs. 15,000 each, three third prizes with a cash award of Rs. 5,000 each and 150 consolation prizes with a cash award of Rs. 1,000 each. Winners would be identified by a draw of lots and names of the top three would be announced in the media while the list of consolation prize winners would be displayed on the notice boards of all eSeva counters, corporation head office and circle offices. Winners would also be informed individually. There are about 5.3-lakh taxpayers on the MCH records and already 2.3-lakh of them had paid their tax. Last year, the corporation got payments from just 2.7-lakh taxpayers. "This year we had sent the bills by August last year and demand notices were sent in the first week of December and some more earlier this month," said Ch. Ravindranath, Additional Commissioner (Finance).

But, despite two-lakh notices issued to defaulters up to Rs. 1 lakh, only 19,360 responded paying about Rs. 7 crores by December 30 last year. Another one-lakh demand notices were sent in the first week of January. The MCH is keen in roping in taxpayers in the middle-income group of Rs. 50 to Rs. 10,000. There are about 2.3-lakh taxpayers under this category and nearly Rs. 70 crores is expected from them.

Through the State Government departments, Rs. 15 crores of the projected Rs. 20 crores has already been realised. The MCH has garnered close to Rs. 100 crores till date and has its task out for collecting the remaining amount at Rs. 1.19 crores a day in the next two months even while its staff are immersed in the election related work.

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