Urban local bodies in the State have witnessed an improvement in property tax collection since 2019, according to a study on the performance of Corporations and municipalities in the State conducted jointly by the Mayors’ Council, Municipal Chairpersons’ chamber, Kerala Municipal and Corporation Staff Union (KMCSU), and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA).
The report was released here on Wednesday during a seminar on the evolving role of urban local bodies organised as part of the KMCSU State conference.
The gap between property tax demand and collection began reducing drastically from 2019 due to efforts on the ground to improve tax collection and an online push. The municipalities and Corporations had been organising campaigns to remind taxpayers to pay as per schedule. As per the estimates of three years from 2019 to 2021, property tax, professional tax and entertainment tax contributed as much as 97% of the own revenues of municipalities. The municipalities in central Kerala were found to have better revenue collection compared to their counterparts in the south and north.
New sources
The study also points at the importance of identifying new sources of non-tax revenue.
The municipalities were found to be drastically better than the Corporations in service delivery. As much as 86% of the posts in municipalities are filled, while in the Corporations there is only a shortfall of 1.51% in human resource.
KMCSU general secretary P. Suresh, convener of the committee that conducted the study, handed over the report to Minister for Local Self-Governments M.B. Rajesh. Mr. Rajesh said that an urban policy which could meet all the challenges of the rapid urbanisation witnessed in the State would be prepared.
