Hubballi, DHNS: In eight days, 11 urban civic bodies rake in Rs 41.75 crore. The 11 city corporations in the state, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC), have collected Rs 41.75 crore as taxes in eight days after the Union government permitted the urban local bodies to accept demonetised notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 for tax payments.

The Centre, on the request of the Maharashtra government, on November 9 permitted the civic bodies to collect property tax, stallage fee, advertisement fee, fees towards various permissions issued by the corporations and other taxes in the demonetised currency. While the initial deadline was November 11, it was subsequently extended to November 24.

Of the 11 corporation commissioners DH?spoke to, eight of them said that they have been seeing unprecedented tax collection since November 12.

Since November 12, the BBMP has collected Rs 12 crore as property tax and Rs 2 crore as betterment tax. From April 1, 2016, to November 19, 2016, the BBMP collected Rs 1,639 crore as property tax, which was almost Rs 190 crore more than that collect in the previous year during the same period.

The HDMC is second on the list with a tax collection of Rs 9.34 crore since November 14.
The total tax collection by Mysuru City Corporation was Rs 6 crore till Saturday, while Gulbarga Mahanagara Palike (GMP) stood fourth by collecting Rs 4.2 crore as taxes.

Tax collection by other civic bodies were Mangaluru City Corporation (Rs 1.78 crore), Davangere City Corporation (Rs 1.53 crore), Ballari City Corporation (Rs 1.45 crore), Belagavi City Corporation (Rs 1 crore), Tumakuru City Corporation (Rs 90 lakh), Vijayapura City Corporation (Rs 85 lakh) and Shivamogga City Corporation (Rs 70 lakh).

“Prior to November 11, the GMP was collecting Rs 8 lakh per day as taxes. However, since last five days we are collecting anywhere between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 70 lakh per day,” said GMP?Commissioner P Sunilkumar.

Belagavi City Corporation Commissioner Shashidhar Kurer said that awareness is being created among people to make use of the opportunity to clear their tax dues using scrapped notes instead of standing in queues in front of banks to exchange them.

Several city corporations have adopted innovative ideas to increase their tax collections, in addition to routine advertisements in mass media and public announcements.

While the HDMC has set up special counters at its 12 zonal offices and H-D One Centres, the Belagavi City Corporation has asked its zonal officials to visit the doorsteps of major defaulters, asking them to clear the tax dues.