Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Come March and all the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) machinery is deployed in collecting municipal taxes. The failure of the municipal body to develop a monthly billing system for tax collection adds to the financial burden on taxpayers in the last month of the financial year. All municipal dues, property tax, water tax and sanitation tax towards garbage collection are to be paid at one go before the beginning of the next financial year. There is a rebate for paying taxes by December, but if one is paying it in March, the BMC administration levies a penalty on it.
Other agencies like power distribution company discom and telecom service providers issue monthly bills online making it easier for the consumers to clear the bills on a monthly basis. However, the municipal corporation wakes up at the last quarter of the financial year to collect all taxes and cess from the public.
From January to March end, the BMC administration deploys all its machinery to collect property tax, water tax, sanitation tax towards garbage collection and others. And in March, the civic body staffers start making door to door visits reminding tax payers of their municipal dues.
The municipal teams are making announcements in colonies and residential areas asking people to pay their property, water taxes and garbage collection fee.
This year, the municipal administration has even threatened to stop garbage collection from households if they fail to pay the amount towards waste collection.
Shabista Zaki, LoP in municipal council said that BMC administration should develop a monthly billing system in Bhopal in the interest of the public. "At present due to the lack of a monthly billing system, people have to pay all the municipal dues at one time. This adds to the financial burden on them in March," said Zaki.
