RINL-VSP tops tax defaulters list; owes Rs 217 crore to AP Municipal Administration

RINL- Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) owes the highest of Rs 217 crores, while the RINL, VSP (private) owes Rs 112 crores.

Besides RINL, E0TTD, Srinivasam, Dargah Hazrat Galib Shaheed (vacant land), Nelcast Industries, the Development Commissioner, VSEZ (Visakhapatnam) are among the top five property tax defaulters, according to the AP Municipal Administration revenue dashboard.

Over the year, the cumulative tax default of these 100 parties have touched Rs 545 crores.

A senior officer with RINL- VSP said that the property tax matter is sub-judice.

Urban Local Bodies are failing to meet their target when it comes to collecting property tax. Therefore, the ULBs are making the tax defaulter public in a bid to recover the dues.

AP Municipal Administration Revenue Department had fixed the revenue target of Rs 2210 crores in 2020-21, but only Rs 859.89 crores has been collected till December 19, which is just 38.9%.

Around Rs 158.97 crores have been collected as water charges against the target of Rs 420 crores. Though the collection is better than last fiscal, it is short of the target. The Covid-19 lockdown has also prevented the ULBs from collecting tax in view of the financial difficulties faced by the people.

To calculate the tax under the new regime, the municipal administration department has readied new software that will be integrated with the database of the stamps and registrations department to automatically capture the value revisions.