Vijayawada: In the face of financial crisis, the revenue wing of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation ( VMC ) started collecting pending property taxes in the fiscal 2018-19. The Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration (CDMA) estimated that around Rs 120 crore property tax was due in the period, while the civic authorities have set a target to collect 50 per cent of the dues by the end of this month.The civic authorities are postponing major developmental works due to financial crisis, which also made them pay salaries and wages to the employees and contract workers this month. During a council meeting held on Monday, most of the corporators expressed anguish over the revenue wing failing to collect the due property taxes from assessments across the city. Mayor Sridhar directed the officials to focus on collecting 45% dues from commercial complexes in the city. Officials are directed to focus on assessments above Rs 20,000 and revenue wing is going to take up a huge campaign, explaining about the penalties imposed on late payment of property tax dues. G. Subba Rao deputy commissioner revenue asked people to pay taxes on time to avoid penalties.“The VMC has not revised the tax slabs after 2013 and taxes are increased due to the late payments. The CDMA brought a new system, in which 2% interest will be levied every month on payments made after June 30 this year,” he said.“We are happy with the response from households as we received Rs 47.80 crore till now this year,” said Subba Rao. People should pay their due taxes on time and support the development activities taken up by the civic body, he added.

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