PMC ties up with power discom to widen property tax net in Patna
Hindustan Times
PATNA, May 24 -- The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has reached an understanding with the South Bihar Power Distribution Company Limited (SBPDCL) to share the latter's database for identifying new holdings and bring them under the property tax net, officials familiar with the issue said. As per the understanding, SBPDCL is modifying its billing software in a way that the PMC gets access to consumer details and location of the property once they apply for a new electricity connection. "We are making necessary provisioning in the billing software to feed the required details of the new consumer to the PMC, in keeping with our privacy policy," Mahendra Kumar, managing director of SBPDCL, said, adding that the civic body would be offered access to the electricity data for new connections next week. PMC had approached the SBPDCL to widen its property tax collection net, which is crucial to its revenue generation. "There are more than 5 lakh properties in the capital city, but we are collecting property tax from only around 2.75 lakh houses and installations," said a PMC official dealing in revenue. In financial year 2022-23, PMC had collected a property tax of Rs.105 crore and set a target of Rs.125 crore for the current fiscal. "Those building new houses generally wait for completion of the houses or for occupancy certificate issued by the civic authority to deposit the property tax, contrary to the laid down norms. PMC starts counting holding tax on any plot the moment electricity connection is issued for it," a revenue officer of PMC said. Though PMC commissioner Animesh Kumar Parashar could not be contacted despite repeated attempts, officials said the corporation would start matching the holding tax (property tax) details with those who already have electricity connections issued to their names in the past. "Legacy data is a huge chunk to handle at a time. So, we have decided to share division-wise database of electricity consumers on a pilot basis. Later, PMC would be granted access to old data in phased manner," said a SBPDCL officer. SBPDCL supplies power to a number of districts, including capital Patna. Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Hindustan Times. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at contentservices@htlive.com