Bhopal: Only 178 Cr Tax Revenue Recovered By 46 Urban Local Bodies

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Tax revenue (property tax, composite tax, education and development cess etc) of Rs 427.64 crore including Rs 264.06 crore as arrears of previous years was recoverable up to March 2022 in 46 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of the state.

However, during 2021-22, an amount of only Rs 178 crore (41.62 per cent) could be recovered against the total demand.

Similarly, against the total demand of Rs 303.98 crore under non tax revenue (water charges, licence fees, land and building rent etc) including Rs 207.70 crore as arrears of previous years, an amount of only Rs 88.34 crore (29.06 per cent) could be recovered by these ULBs.

This has been mentioned in the Report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Local Bodies for the period ended March 2022.

During the period 2014-15 to 2021-22, 33 ULBs collected education cess of Rs 94.84 crore. However, only Rs 69.79 crore had been utilised by ULBs. This has resulted in a blockage of Rs 25.05 crore in bank accounts. Water supply mgmt in ULBs The CAG report says that against targets and demand of supply of water, there was no or negligible shortfall in four ULBs. In one ULB, percentage of deficit was up to 19 per cent.

In four ULBs, the percentage of deficit ranged between 25 per cent and 50 per cent respectively. In five ULBs, the deficit was more than 50%. In one ULB, the shortfall was 90%. In eight selected ULBs, tests for assuring quality of water supplied were not conducted regularly.