CSMC serves show-cause notices to contractual staff against poor tax recovery

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) administrator G Sreekanth today expressed his disappointment and took the tax collection staff to task for extremely poor recovery of property and water taxes in the first quarter (three months) of the current financial year. The municipal corporation has set a target of collecting more than Rs 500 crore in the financial year 2024-25. It may be noted that 12 to 15 contract employees have been appointed at each ward office for the collection of property and water taxes in their respective jurisdictions. In past, the administrator had once issued orders to serve 'show cause' notices to the staff after reviewing a severe decline in tax collections.

Property tax and water tax form the backbone of the municipal corporation's economy. About 40 to 50 percent of the property tax amount goes to the government in various forms of taxes. The remaining amount stays in the municipal treasury. Nearly Rs 100 crore is spent annually on maintaining water supply. In comparison, the collection of water tax is not even Rs 25 to 30 crore. Hence it has become difficult for the civic administration to balance the expenses on city development works, essential services, and collections. Currently, there are contractor bills worth Rs 250 crore pending in the accounts department. Besides, the dues for retired employees are also outstanding on CSMC. On Friday, the administrator held a special meeting to review the tax collections. While reviewing the zone-wise collections, he found that collections were very low in a few zone offices. The collection employees were provided with blocs of properties and Google Sheets. Despite this, collections were not satisfactory. The ward officers did not have answers to why the remaining amounts were not collected from property owners who made partial payments and why the actions of seizing and sealing properties for arrears were stopped. The administrator directed the officials concerned to issue 'show cause' notices to the collection employees in the wards. He warned that if there is no improvement in collections, the contractors might be dismissed from service.