Building tax increase without settling the pending balance; 1862 crore yet to be received

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Talks that the discussion in LSGD to increase building tax by 5% every year is being done before collection of the pending tax that is yet to be collected from bigshots. When the regular taxpayers are forced to pay more, the ones who are yet to pay will keep on cheating the government and increase their pending payments. There will be no move to collect that as well. As a result, the extra burden falls on other taxpayers. The data on tax payments is proof of this. With just two months to end this revenue year, 1800 crore is yet to be collected. Only 28.46% is collected yet. 71.54 tax has not been collected so far. The big building and shopping complexes are the ones that fool the government.

Corporations with big buildings and shopping complexes have collected only 15.88% so far. The panchayats are far ahead with 57.12%. A shopping complex that was shut down recently in the capital is yet to pay Rs 62 lakh to the corporation. If the building tax is collected properly the LSGD establishments will have enough income. Without doing that the tax is being increased.

Building tax (Amount in crores)
(2022-23 Financial year)

Total Amount:2603.35
Received: 740.76 (28.46%)
Yet to receive: 1862.36 (71.54%)

Corporation
Total Amount:1119.69
Received: 177.84 (15.88%)
Yet to receive: 941.84(84.12%)

Municipality
Total Amount:831.00
Received: 190.23 (22.90%)
Yet to receive: 640.74( 77.10%)

Panchayath
Total Amount:656.66
Received: 372.69 (57.12%)
Yet to receive: 279.78 (42.88%)