Mangaluru: Mangaluru City Corporation is in the midst of a revenue recovery drive. Led by chairman of taxation, finance and appeals standing committee Radhakrishna, the civic body officials, including commissioner Mohammad Nazeer, are going round the city to check for cases of default in paying property taxes, water bills and also instances where commercial establishments are operating without obtaining mandatory trade license.

Interacting with reporters amidst one such drive at a commercial complex at PVS junction on Monday, Radhakrishna said MCC is working hard to provide world class infrastructure to its people and this cannot be done with people shying from paying their dues to the civic body. “We have come across several cases where residential and commercial units have not paid property tax, obtained trade licenses and kept water bills due for long,” he said.

Appealing to citizens to be dutiful in paying their dues to the corporation, Radhakrishna said city’s drive to upgrade infrastructure will be hit if the dues keep mounting. “Please pay your taxes lawfully or else the city corporation will bring the law to your doorstep,” he said, adding the civic body does not want to confront the defaulters at their doorsteps and shame them. Instead, the stakeholders should be forthcoming in this direction, he said.

Nazeer said all staff of MCC, including revenue and health inspectors, is carrying out random checks for default in tax payments. Referring to the case at the commercial complex the team inspected, Nazeer said the owner who had sublet the complex to various trades owed MCC Rs 24 lakh by way of property tax. Some shops are operating in the complex without trade licence and some have not renewed their licence for years, Nazeer said.

Gayathri Nayak, deputy commissioner (revenue), said the city corporation is averaging around 70-75% of its targeted amount from property tax and water bills annually. There is a big rush to pay the dues in the last quarter of the fiscal and the intensity tapers off after that, she said. “We are now mulling to appeal to all resident welfare associations to ensure that every member of their flat, complex pays their property tax on time,” the official said.

The tax payment record is poor in cases of newly constructed buildings and the drive is also focussing on this aspect, she said. Even when our officials go to residential units, most of the houses are locked and it becomes difficult to ascertain if a particular resident has paid taxes or not, she said. “Notices will be issue to all defaulters to pay their dues within a week, failing which the civic body will be forced to discontinue water supply,” she warned.