DK, first in state for GP tax collection

Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada (DK) district which leads in the electricity bill payment is now also the leader in the state for Gram Panchayat (GP) tax collection.

The district has become a model for the state after its GP’s collected tax by 68.34%. Uttara Kannada comes second with a tax collection of 65.44% followed by Udupi district on the third place at 51.04% of tax collection. While on one hand, there is accusation that the GP’s are being careless in the collection of taxes and failing to become self –reliant, on the other hand, it is special to note that the tax collection from GP’s in the Karavali section of the state is at record levels.

With the introduction of the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act in 1993, The GP’s were provided opportunity to collect property tax from the cultivators within the GP’s limits. It was the government’s wish to make GP’s self-reliant through the codification of GP’s resources within the GP’s limits. But, most of the GP’s have failed to effectively implement their authority and shown carelessness on deciding the tax, revision and its collection.

In 2017-18, of the 230 GP’s in Dakshina Kannada district, Rs. 26.59 crore tax has already been collected and Rs. 12.31 crore is still remaining to be collected. In Udupi, Rs. 15.36 crore has been collected and Rs. 14.73 crore remains to be collected. This is much more than the other districts in the state, inform village development and panchayat raj officials.

Kalburgi comes last

Kalburgi district has 264 GP’s and the expected tax is Rs. 9.17 crore, but the collected tax is a meager Rs. 12.89 lakh. Of the 185 GP’s in Bidar district, with expectation of Rs. 5.94 crore in tax, only Rs. 55.96 lakh has been collected. Rs. 3.55 crore is the tax expected from Yadgir district with 123 GP’s, but only Rs. 76.93 lakh has been collected.

Decline in tax revision

There are altogether 6,024 functioning GP’s in the state. In order to give more importance for tax collection, the GP’s were given the authority for tax revision. But, there is an accusation that most of the GP’s have failed at using this authority.

Though the law was amended in 2015, only 1,421 GP’s have done tax revision. In the last 4 years, 96 GP’s in DK district, 128 in Uttara Kannada district, 88 in Udupi district, 71 in Bengaluru city and 37 in Kodagu district have not done tax revision. Also, 417 in Belgavi, 273 in Tumakuru, 216 in Mandya and 211 GP’s in Kalburgi have failed to do tax revision.