Jagtial civic body has five days to collect ₹5.75 crore tax

 WARANGAL: With the financial year coming to a close in five days, Jagtial municipality is making all efforts to collect taxes due to it during the year 2022–23.

The municipality has about 25,000 commercial and non-commercial establishments from which it is to collect ₹12.4 crore this year. Municipal officials have been able to collect only ₹6.65 crore from around 18,000 households till date. It is an uphill task for them to collect the remaining ₹5.75 crore within the next five days.

Few days ago, municipal commissioner B. Naresh accompanied by staff visited shops and houses of major defaulters. They presented defaulters roses, requesting them to pay their pending tax immediately.

District collector Yasmin Basha held a meeting with officials as well as Jagtial municipal chairman Goli Srinivas and councillors, requesting them to help municipal staff in collecting pending taxes from their respective wards.

The collector underlined that if 100 percent municipal tax is not collected by March 31, Jagtial will not get any grants from the 15th Finance Commission. This will hinder development of Jagtial town, she warned.

Vehicles have been going around the town since past one week making announcements regarding payment of taxes due. Notices have been issued to defaulters in all wards of the municipality.

With time running out, officials in certain areas have started forcibly collecting taxes from defaulters. They are sealing properties of those who are not paying their tax.

Incidentally, there had been a rift within the ruling BRS in Jagtial since long between local MLA Sanjay Kumar and Bhoga Shravani, who served as municipal chairperson before quitting. Political squabble is said to be a reason why officials could not focus on collecting the pending taxes, it is said.

Since then, Shravani has resigned and has joined the BJP.