Surat, June 2 : With the abolition of octroi, property tax has emerged as the Surat Municipal Corporation's primary source of income. In a bid to encourage early payments, SMC announced rebates on seven types of taxes for April and May, a move that has seen over Rs 359 crore deposited in April alone.

Every year, SMC offers a 10 per cent rebate on property tax in April and a 7 per cent rebate in May. An additional 2 per cent discount is granted for online payments, incentivising digital transactions.

This strategy has led to a surge in early tax payments, with 2.57 lakh property owners settling their dues in the first two months of the financial year.

According to officials, Rs 100 crore in property tax was collected in just the first fortnight of April. In total, the municipality has given Rs 18.72 crore in rebates during this period.

Notably, Rs 185.30 crore has been collected online from 94,026 taxpayers, underlining the success of SMC's digital initiatives. 'The way Surat residents are paying their taxes in advance has simplified our collection process,' said an official. 'It also ensures we can accelerate development projects across the city without delays.'

In Gujarat, property tax has become a vital source of revenue for urban local bodies, especially after the abolition of octroi. Municipal corporations across the state, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, and others, rely heavily on this tax to fund civic infrastructure, sanitation, water supply, and other essential services. Among these, Surat Municipal Corporation has stood out for its efficient collection system and incentive-based approach.

In 2023-24, SMC collected over Rs 900 crore in property tax, thanks to timely rebates and its online payment system. Similarly, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) collected around Rs 1,000 crore, with more than 60 per cent of the payments made digitally. AMC offers similar early bird rebates of 10 per cent in April and 7 per cent in May, encouraging citizens to pay early and online.

In Rajkot, the property tax collection touched around Rs 300 crore, and Vadodara reported collections of nearly Rs 450 crore during the last fiscal year. These figures indicate a trend where tax-paying citizens are increasingly using online systems, leading to better compliance and higher revenues for municipalities.

The Gujarat government also monitors and ranks municipal bodies on the basis of their tax collection efficiency. Cities that implement e-governance systems, grievance redressal portals, and structured rebate schemes have shown significantly higher compliance.

On a broader scale, urban local bodies in Gujarat together collected property tax worth over Rs 4,000 crore in the financial year 2023-24, according to state-level urban development data.

/IANS