Councillors of all 41 wards of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation have been asked to focus on property tax collections.
The decision to focus on property tax collections was taken at a board meeting. It was unanimously decided that the civic body needs to focus on collection of property bills from the residents, a senior civic official said.
Krishna Chakraborty, mayor of the corporation, said they had started sending tax bills to the residents from April.
Till August, the earnings of the civic body from property taxes have not been satisfactory, Chakraborty said.
“The property tax collections stand at less than Rs 50 lakh till date. We need to focus on more tax collections,” Chakraborty said.
The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in its budget has set a revenue target of Rs 294.56 crore in the financial year 2022-2023.
According to records provided by the corporation, a total of Rs 42.41 crore of property taxes is yet to be collected from the 41 wards of the civic body that comprises Salt Lake, Baguiati, Kestopur and parts of Rajarhat.
The unrealised tax arrears amount to Rs 19.32 crore in Salt Lake and Rs 23.09 crore in other areas, including Rajarhat and Gopalpur.
Ranjan Poddar, councillor of Ward 34, said he was planning to send property tax notices door-to-door and organise a property tax camp.
“I am planning to hold a camp where residents can walk in and pay their taxes,” he said.
The corporation has hiked property tax rates in all three sectors of Salt Lake to increase its earnings from tax collection.
Residents can pay taxes online by logging into: https://proptax. bmcwbgov.in/PropertyTaxOnline/ PropertyTax/ Online.aspx.
For those wishing to pay at Poura Bhavan, a property tax collection centre has been set up on the ground floor of the civic headquarters.
Residents can also make payments at HDFC bank branches across Salt Lake in BB, CJ and IA blocks.