7-month Local Body Tax revenue nearly matches octroi

PUNE: After several months of mediocre earnings from Local Body Tax (LBT), the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is now confident that it will achieve the revenue target set by the general body and match the octroi revenue of the previous fiscal.
In the first seven months of the financial year, the LBT department has collected revenue of Rs 746 crore, including LBT and one per cent charges on stamp duty.Octroi revenue during the same period last year was Rs 762 crore.
"There is a gap of Rs 16 crore and we are confident about achieving the target. The LBT department has actually started functioning in the last four months as in the first three months traders were agitating against the LBT. In the next five months we are going to intensify the drive against LBT defaulters which will help achieve the target," Vilas Kanade, joint commissioner (LBT) told TOI.
After the state government granted permission to raid trade and business establishments that failed to pay LBT, the PMC began conducting raids last month.