BMC to send monthly texts as reminders to pay holding tax, trade licence fees

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is mulling sending monthly texts as reminders to residents and traders if they have not paid their holding tax or trade licence fees. The reminders through text messages will be sent on the mobile phones at the beginning of every month, reports said.

“The motive is to improve the revenue collections of the civic body,” a senior official informed.

Notifications Like Electric & Phone Bills

This plan was discussed after the taxation, finance, and accounts standing committee of BMC submitted a proposal to the mayor in this regard during a recent council meeting. If the proposal is approved by the Mayor, then taxpayers will start receiving monthly text messages, similar to the notifications, everyone receives for monthly electricity and phone bills.

“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,” the chairperson of the committee, Rajkishor Das stated.

Mayor’s Reaction:

When contacted, Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das said, “The text messages as a reminder are an innovative idea we are considering implementing.”

At the beginning of April, the BMC issued a public notice informing people to pay their holding tax through the Bhubaneswar.me website, where they can avail of a 5% discount on online payments.

As per reports, a total of Rs 94 crore holding tax was collected during 2023-24 with another Rs 101 collected during 2024-25 while the BMC targets to collect a whopping Rs 120 crore in this 2025-26 fiscal year.