To collect property taxes, the Lucknow civic government works with the electrical department.

LUCKNOW: Together with the power department, the Lucknow Municipal Corporation has developed a strategy plan to improve property tax collection.

The effort put forth by the city’s mayor, Sushma Kharakwal, intends to uncover any discrepancies between household data and records of electricity connections in order to bring unregistered houses into the tax system.

LMC mainly depends on property taxes as its main revenue source. The elected members use the money obtained from this tax towards the ward-development process.

Only roughly 3.65 lakh of the 6 lakh homes registered with the municipal corporation are actively paying taxes, though. In addition, several novel characteristics are still unidentified. The mayor wants to make sure that all buildings are fully compliant with tax collection obligations.

“We would ask the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited to share their records for matching,” Kharakwal told TOI. This will help us not only find unregistered properties but also figure out how long permanent connections have existed, enabling us to compute the appropriate tax payment.

Subject to state government clearance, the mayor intends to suggest an alluring discount under a one-time settlement method to lessen the load on the citizens.

Property tax evasion totaled almost Rs80 crore over the previous three years, according to a recent Geographical Information System survey that LMC paid for. 3.26 lakh brand-new residences constructed in the last two years are still unregistered for property tax purposes, according to the poll.

The undervaluation of more than 2.16 lakh properties over the previous three years has also led to fewer tax payments. For new properties and discounted properties, the anticipated tax evasion totals Rs. 60 crore and Rs. 20 crore, respectively.