Mangaluru : Minister for Urban Development Vinay Kumar Sorake directed the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) officials to fix a target of Rs 100 crore of revenue collection for the next financial year.

Chairing a meet on Smart City and review of MCC development works and allied issues on Monday, the minister expressed discontent over the inability to achieve the target of collection of property tax and recovering dues from revenue defaulters.

He meanwhile warned that the officials concerned will be held responsible for the pending revenue.

He said he will conduct ward-wise meetings to follow up the progress of revenue collection in the coming days.

Earlier, the Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Raju Mogavira, said, out of Rs 55 crore target for the collection of property tax, Rs 26.5 crore has been collected in the current fiscal year. In order to make the collection of property tax more user-friendly, a software is being developed to retrieve the data of tax payers. The software will help in e-filling of applications, he said and added that the software designing is in the final stage.

Member of opposition Premanand Shetty said, there are instances where the tax payment has been pending for the last eight to ten years.

The minister said that the steps have been initiated to appoint D group staff by the DC while the appointment of the staff of A, B and C groups will be done through the KPSC and the necessary correspondences have been made in this direction, answering to a query by the opposition leader in the council Sudhir Shetty regarding the shortage of 1065 staff in the Department.

Member of Legislative Assembly J R Lobo suggested separating garbage cess from property cess. He meanwhile said that all types of revenue collection should be brought under the limits of Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) to ease the process. The MCC Commissioner was directed to issue an order in this regard.

Former Mayor Mahabala Marla said that the collection of water taxes has not been up to the mark, owing to the irresponsibility of officers and urged the minister to initiate action against errant officers. The minister also conducted the review of works under Nagarotthana scheme.

Mayor Jacinta Vijaya Alfred, Commissioner Dr H N Gopalakrishna and MUDA Chairman Ibrahim Kodijal were present.