Less cash in house tax kitty to hit civic projects

LUCKNOW: Poor house tax collection by Lucknow Municipal Corporation in 2018-19 financial year will impact development works, specially road and drain construction, in the city in 2019-20 fiscal year.
LMC’s house tax collection from the entire city should be Rs 600 crore. Since the corporation is unable to cover all houses, it had set a target of Rs 260 crore in 2018-19 financial year.But it has failed to achieve even this target. So far, the corporation has collected only Rs 172 crore in house tax — meaning there is still a deficit of Rs 88 crore.

This, LMC officials admit, would affect development works in the next financial year as it would restrict fund allocations for road construction and repair work, interlocking and cleaning of drains, and maintenance of parks.
In 2018-19 too, allocation for road repair and construction was cut by Rs 30 crore due to poor tax collection.
To meet the shortage off funds due to poor tax collection, municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi said, they will seek 20% additional development funds from the state government so that civic works can be carried out. Tripathi added, “We will now send legal notices to house tax defaulters. If it doesn’t work then we property of defaulters would be sealed.”
Among the reasons behind poor house tax collection are delay in sending house tax bills to people, delay in assessment, and legal disputes. Long queues at LMC bill counters for house tax are also a deterrent in timely payment by house owners.