HYDERABAD: With just a little more than a month to go for the house tax collection deadline, the 10 municipalities surrounding the twin cities and two in the hinterlands of Ranga Reddy district have a daunting task ahead of them -- while some need to collect more than 40 per cent of the total target set for them for the year, a couple of municipalities have to collect 65 per cent of their annual target.

For L.B. Nagar Municipality it is literally an uphill task with only 37 per cent collections made so far. Ditto is the case with Vikarabad which collected about 44 per cent of the total taxes. One of the commissioners getting suspended and the municipality being run by an incharge commissioner for most part of the year also affected revenue collections of L.B. Nagar.

Of the envisaged Rs. 135 crores, only 85 crore has been collected in the 12 municipalitiesand the authorities have little time to mop up the remaining Rs. 54 crores.

"The need of the hour is to step up the collection drive," the Ranga Reddy regional director, Municipal Administration, K. Venkatarami Reddy, said. At a meeting convened two days ago he wanted the municipal commissioners to carry out special drives in their areas to reach the targets without fail.

The highest

The highest collections were made by the Rajendranagar, Uppal Kalan and Gaddiannaram municipalities, all accounting for more than 70 per cent of the annual target, while Malkajgiri came a close second with 69 per cent collections. The corresponding figure for the Kukatpally and Seri Lingampally municipalities was above 60 per cent while Kapra managed 59.5 per cent.

Saying the collections were 6 per cent below normal, Mr. Reddy attributed this to the municipal staff being busy with various programmes like issuance of ration cards and elections to local bodies.

"Various urban development programmes have affected the pace and volume of collections, but we are confident of reaching the target before March 31, the financial year-end," he affirmed. In L.B. Nagar alone, there were 35,000 additions in the ration card list.

As a part of the drive, municipalities have commenced special counters from 8 a.m.for the convenience of the residents, mostly belonging to the working class.

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