Mysore/Mysuru: With the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) witnessing a downslide in revenue collection due to COVID crisis, new MCC Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy has asked the civic body’s revenue officials to focus more on online collection  of property tax.

Addressing a meeting of Revenue Section staff and officials from all the nine Zones of the MCC at the MCC’s Old Council Hall here yesterday, Reddy sought inputs on the number of properties, the amount of property tax collected every year, the criterion used for stipulating tax and such other vital statistics.

MCC Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Nagaraj gave details about the property tax that was collected following the COVID outbreak last year, the revenue earned while lockdown was in force, the status concerning payment of online property tax and such other issues.

Pointing out that the deadline for payment of property tax with a 5 percent rebate has been extended till June 30 due to COVID crisis, he said that the MCC, as on June 8, has collected property tax of Rs.43 crore from all the nine Zones.

Noting that the Zonal Offices are collecting property tax of Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh on an average every day, Nagaraj highlighted that the stringent lockdown in force has hindered door-to-door collection of property tax. The MCC Commissioner directed the officials to promote online payment of property tax among the citizens by facilitating easy procedures and clearing any technical glitches or hurdles. He also directed them to come up with clarifications sought by the tax-payers.

Stressing on the need for providing necessary infrastructure in all localities, once the lockdown ends, he directed the officials to speed up revenue collection soon after activities return to normal post-lockdown. He also emphasised on judicious use of revenue collections as it is the tax-payers’ money.

MCC DC N.M. Shashikumar, Health Officer Dr. D.G. Nagaraj and other officials were present.