Dindigul Corporation forms 32 teams to collect tax arrears of over ₹55 crore

DINDIGUL

In a bid to collect and recover tax dues running to a whopping ₹57.61 crore from tax payers, the Dindigul Corporation has formed 32 teams for this purpose, official sources said here on Sunday.

After the election to the urban local body was held, the new Mayor J. Illamathi had told in an interview to The Hindu that her top priority would be to collect the tax dues to the Corporation. Only when the people cooperated by remitting the dues, the cash strapped civic body can take steps to give a better standard of life to the residents.

Presently, the Corporation finds it tough to disburse salaries to its employees on time every month, officials said and hence there was no question of development. “We are running the administration on a daily basis... Only when we have funds of our own or from the TN government or through other funding agencies, we can prepare projects/estimates et al,” a senior official said.

With the officials alone at the helm of affairs, the civic body was unable to recover the dues in a big way over the last six to seven years. Moreover, the Corporation had focused on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020. “Only now, we have an elected body and we look forward for some action in the coming months,” the official said and added that the 32 teams would be responsible for collection of property tax, water tax, professional tax, rental arrears and among others.

Last two years, the water tax due to the Corporation was ₹10.62 crore, property tax due was ₹10.23 crore and hence it had been decided to accord top priority towards achieving 100 per cent in the next 30 days, the official said and added that the budget to be presented for this financial year may have a huge deficit on account of non-payment, non-recovery of dues to the civic body.