AMC property tax income falls 4% to Rs 799 cr

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's property tax collection fell by 4 per cent for 2017-18 as compared with the previous year, tax collection figures released by the civic body on the last day of the financial year show.

The AMC had collected Rs 833.45 crore as property tax in 2016-17, while it ended 2017-18 with Rs 798.90 crore. Officials said the revenue was expected to be lower than last year due to the surge in tax payment after the note-ban announcement on November 8, 2016.

The tax collection figures show that out of Rs 798.90 crore, Rs 242 crore or 30 per cent was collected in April itself. This is because of the AMC's scheme to offer 10 per cent rebate for payment of the tax in the fiscal's first month. The civic body also ended the year with a flourish as its March property tax collection zoomed to Rs 145 crore as against Rs 103 crore in March last year.

According to the AMC data, the South zone was the only one where property tax collection was higher than last year, albeit just marginally by 0.69 per cent. It fell by 3.5 per cent and 12.6 per cent in the other five zones.

AMC said that professional tax collection rose by 11 per cent from Rs 147.36 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 163.56 crore in 2017-18. Similarly, vehicle tax revenue jumped 18 per cent from Rs 80.54 crore to Rs 94.86 crore.

The total tax collection for this year was Rs 1,057.32 crore, marginally lower than last year's Rs 1,061.51 crore.