Bhubaneswar: The city denizens may soon get reminders through text message on pending holding tax and trace licence fees.
To improve revenue collection, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is mulling such an approach in the form of reminders to residents and traders at the beginning of every month, similar to energy or telephone bills payments notification. This was discussed during a recent council meeting of the civic body, which in the past issued names of tax defaulters to remind them of their pending taxes.
“Revenue collection from different taxes such as holding tax and trade licence fees was encouraging in the previous financial year. This year too, we are aiming for better collections. For this purpose, innovative approaches are the need of the hour,” TOI reported, quoting chairperson of the committee, Rajkishor Das.
At the beginning of April, the BMC also issued a public notice, informing residents to pay holding tax via the bhubaneswar.me website at a discount of 5%. The civic body has also set up 22 revenue collection camps across all three zones of the city to guide and encourage people to make tax payments.
In 2024-25, the civic body collected Rs 101 crore holding tax against the target of Rs 110 crore. It has set a target of Rs 120 crore in 2025-26.
