Vijayawada: Central, state wings owe civic body crores in tax

VIJAYAWADA: Failure of Central and state government wings to clear pending property tax dues has become a major hurdle in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation’s efforts to meet its revenue targets. 

While a majority of the private property owners pay taxes to the VMC promptly, most of the government departments are defaulters. According to data available, nearly Rs 53,19,08,646 in property tax was pending of which the state government wings owe Rs 31,53,51,377 and the Central government wings owe Rs 21,65,57,270. 

Recently, VMC officials tried to seal a government polytechnic for non-payment of property tax but the students and people’s representatives managed to thwart it. 

According to reports, the government ITI and polytechnic colleges have to pay Rs 13,50,21,426 in property tax, followed by the revenue department that owes Rs 3,13,76,784, APCRDA Rs 1,76,92,805, irrigation department Rs 1,11,33,756, medical and health department Rs 1,47,67,906, PWD Rs 1,62,91,173, R&B department '1,80,72,459, endowments department Rs 1,00,69,500, civil courts Rs 1,09,12,060 and others have to pay in lakhs. 

Similarly, Central government department also owe crores to the VMC. According to available data, the Railways owes Rs 18,54,17,181, postal department Rs 2,28,58,357, BSNL Rs 57,43,408, Income Tax department Rs 52,783 and Doordashan Rs 24,84,541 to the civic body. The ITI and polytechnic colleges have not cleared their property tax since 1993. 

VMC officials issued notices several times to ITI and Polytechnic officials but in vain. Vijayawada residents K. Ramakrishna and B. Raghuram said that the VMC should disconnect water supply, seal the property and display the names of the tax defaulters publicly. 

They said that the government departments should follow rules, instead of troubling the VMC. Meanwhile, VMC officials said that the government has been informed about the pending property taxes.