Suryakant Jena

Bhubaneswar: Taking strong note of non-payment of crores of holding tax, the municipal authorities of the Smart City have now issued an ultimatum to defaulting individuals and organisations to clear their pending dues by February 28 or else face consequences.

Issuing a directive in this regard, the BMC has strictly mentioned that if the defaulters do not clear their pending tax by the stipulated period, the authorities will forcibly recover the tax with certificate cases under Odisha Public Demand Recovery Act, 1962. This apart, it has also cautioned to take legal action under Odisha Municipal Corporation Act, 2003.

The corporation has uploaded the detailed list of 364 defaulting individuals and organisations who have huge amount of holding tax pending on them. Candidates can refer to the list by logging in to the website - www.bmc.gov.in to get more information.

According to official sources, the BMC authorities had issued red notices to the tax defaulters in December 2019 but most of them did not clear their dues.

It may be noted that the city administration roped in as many as 10 transgenders on February 7 to collect pending holding tax from the defaulters. Till February 12, the transgenders who have been named as ‘Swikruti’ have collected holding tax of around Rs 4 lakh. They have been tasked to collect the total pending holding tax of Rs 11 crore from defaulters.

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