VIJAYAWADA: To improve tax collection revenue, the NTR district administration has established a Vacant Land Tax Committee (VLTC) tasked with recovering pending vacant land tax dues from taxpayers within the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) limits.
The VLTC consists of personnel from both the VMC’s revenue department and the NTR district administration, alongside town planning representatives and staff from the stamps and registration department. Despite a Rs 237 crore demand for vacant land tax, only Rs 19 crore—8.18% of the total—was collected in the previous financial year (2024-25).
There are approximately 15,000 vacant land tax assessments within the 64 divisions across three circles in the city. A senior municipal corporation official stated, “The low collection rate is primarily due to the difficulty in locating the original landowners. Many taxpayers live elsewhere, making it challenging for municipal staff to track them down, which leads to the accumulation of outstanding dues.”
Records indicate that over Rs 870 crore in vacant land tax dues has been pending from taxpayers over the last five financial years (2020-2025).
The VMC official added, “With support from revenue department officials, including Village Revenue Officers (VROs) and Mandal Revenue Officers (MROs), taxpayer addresses will be verified by secretariat. Notices will be issued to the top 10 taxpayers identified in each secretariat,” emphasizing that the initial focus will be on secretariats with the fewest tax defaulters.
Additionally, the staff from the municipal corporation’s ward secretariats will collaborate with revenue and stamps staff to locate taxpayer addresses.
