Holding tax collection rises by Rs 20 cr in 2024-25 | Bhubaneswar News
Bhubaneswar: With the current financial year ending on Monday, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) fetched Rs 20 crore more in holding tax this year (2024-25) compared to last year’s Rs 74 crore, although it fell short of meeting the target of Rs 100 crore. In both tax and non-tax revenue, BMC collected around Rs 220 crore this financial year, civic body officials said.
Holding tax is assessed based on the plinth area of a house or building, and it is a legitimate revenue of the civic body. There are different slabs for commercial and residential holdings (buildings). “We assessed holding tax for Rs 92 crore but fetched Rs 94 crore, which is Rs 20 crore more than what we earned last financial year. In March and Feb, almost 50 per cent of tax dues were collected. We put up the names of big defaulters publicly, and that worked as many of them paid the dues,” said BMC deputy commissioner (revenue) Ajay Mohanty.
The non-tax revenue includes trade licence fee, parking fee, rent from various facilities including kalyan mandaps, user charges from public littering of construction and demolition waste, and others. “The break-up of non-tax revenue will be calculated in a day or two. Also, which zone fetched maximum holding tax revenue will be known after collating the data,” Mohanty added.
Last year in Feb, BMC got approval from the govt to start collecting holding tax from establishments set up on lands belonging to the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). Earlier, the civic body was not empowered to collect the holding tax from such establishments until the 2022-23 financial year.
Holding tax is being collected by BMC based on the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950. It still follows the old rates. Since land value is an important determinant for tax calculation and land value increased manifold at different locations in the city, the final calculation of the tax amount went up in the revised tax assessment. The Orissa high court put a break in tax collection as per revised rates in 2021. Since then, tax is collected on the basis of old rates.
Holding tax is assessed based on the plinth area of a house or building, and it is a legitimate revenue of the civic body. There are different slabs for commercial and residential holdings (buildings). “We assessed holding tax for Rs 92 crore but fetched Rs 94 crore, which is Rs 20 crore more than what we earned last financial year. In March and Feb, almost 50 per cent of tax dues were collected. We put up the names of big defaulters publicly, and that worked as many of them paid the dues,” said BMC deputy commissioner (revenue) Ajay Mohanty.
The non-tax revenue includes trade licence fee, parking fee, rent from various facilities including kalyan mandaps, user charges from public littering of construction and demolition waste, and others. “The break-up of non-tax revenue will be calculated in a day or two. Also, which zone fetched maximum holding tax revenue will be known after collating the data,” Mohanty added.
Last year in Feb, BMC got approval from the govt to start collecting holding tax from establishments set up on lands belonging to the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). Earlier, the civic body was not empowered to collect the holding tax from such establishments until the 2022-23 financial year.
Holding tax is being collected by BMC based on the Odisha Municipal Act, 1950. It still follows the old rates. Since land value is an important determinant for tax calculation and land value increased manifold at different locations in the city, the final calculation of the tax amount went up in the revised tax assessment. The Orissa high court put a break in tax collection as per revised rates in 2021. Since then, tax is collected on the basis of old rates.
