RMC recovers Rs 31 crore octroi

The Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) has recovered octroi worth Rs 31.48 crore in the first-half of fiscal year 2004-05 against the full-year target of Rs 70 crore.

"To achieve the targeted figure of Rs 70 crore, our octroi department has to work to collect an average Rs 6.50 crore per month in the coming months," said Harishbhai Kagathra, octroi officer, RMC.

Also, a flying squad of the octroi department collected Rs 1.61 lakh from 10 defaulting merchants, Kagathra said.

Meanwhile, the urban housing and town development board of the RMC approved amendments to the present structure of octroi rates applicable on tyre tubes, fuel coal, iron and steel. The new rates will be effective from Tuesday.

The octroi on all tyre and tubes will be two per cent against 2.5 per cent earlier. The octroi on fuel coal has been hiked to 0.50 per cent against 0.25 per cent, while the octroi on pig iron and cast iron has been raised to 0.075 per cent from 0.50 per cent.

Till date 99,702 people have paid house tax. They have also avail of the advantage of the rebate scheme in the last two months.

About 6,800 property holders had paid tax in June and more than 11,877 had paid house taxes in August 2004.

To encourage tax payment, RMC has introduced a 10 per cent discount for tax payers who pay their tax of 2004-05 before May 31.