The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporations half yearly collection of the property tax in the current financial year is Rs 165 crore which is Rs 20 crore less than what it was at this time last year. Tax recovery has become rebate driven as taxpayers often pay taxes only after a rebate is announced. Earlier,rebates were limited to dues but now the facility is extended to cases under new formula,too. To see that those who pay on time are not at a loss,a 10 per cent rebate is given on payment in advance. This resulted in payments of Rs 98 crore in April when rebate scheme was on offer. Once the month-long rebate period was over by April end,recovery fell and tax payments of only Rs 67 crore were collected in the next four months. According to the standing committee budget estimate,AMC has set for itself the recovery target of Rs 558 crore by March 2010. Despite official optimism of robust recovery in the fourth quarter,reaching Rs 393 crore by then is quite a task. In case of profession tax collection,the recovery is around Rs 20 crore so far against the annual target of Rs 65 crore by March 2010. I P Gautam,AMC Municipal Commissioner,was not available for comment while standing committee chairman Asit Vora does not see anything unusual in deficit recovery saying the corporation has always the option of running a special drive. Fluctuations in recovery are bound to be there but that is not a cause of worry because no payments or contracts suffer for lack of funds, he said. Regarding money falling short in approved projects,he said AMC would ensure supplementary funding in such cases.
