Kolkata: The Urban Development and Municipal Affairs (UDMA) department has directed the municipalities adjacent to Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to conduct camps in the housing complexes to boost tax collection and speed up the mutation of flats.
The department has also recommended hosting camps in localities for the same to boost revenue collection.
According to sources in the Municipal Affairs department, the urban local bodies that have been asked to do the needful are Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and the municipalities of North Dum Dum, South Dum Dum, Dum Dum, Baranagar and Kamarhati.
During the 2020-21 financial year, at the time of Covid, the KMC had decided to host camps in housing complexes to provide civic amenities. During that fiscal, the earning through municipal taxes and mutation was Rs 52 crore. Since then, KMC has held such special camps in housing complexes at regular intervals. Camps are usually held in complexes with more than 30 apartments. The response has been overwhelming.
“It was witnessed that a section of people are willing to pay tax but are reluctant to go to the KMC or unwilling to pay online but are comfortable in paying it at doorstep camps,” a senior official of the Municipal Affairs department said.
In the ‘Talk to Mayor’ programme, held once a week, KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim has often received requests to hold such camps from the adjacent urban local bodies. “Holding camps at the doorstep of such complexes will be beneficial for the residents as well as boost the exchequer of the state,” a senior official of the Municipal Affairs department said.