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Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC), in coordination with NTR district officials, has formed a special Vacant Land Tax Committee to recover outstanding dues of over INR 870 crore. Although the VMC raised a demand of INR 237 crore in the last financial year, collections amounted to just INR 19 crore. A major challenge has been identifying landowners who live elsewhere. Officials are now using sale deed records and district databases to trace them. Notices will be issued to top defaulters across all secretariats, beginning with areas where defaults are lowest.
Vijayawada authorities have intensified efforts to recover long-pending vacant land tax (VLT) dues by forming a dedicated Vacant Land Tax Committee (VLTC). This new task force includes officials from the revenue, town planning, and stamps and registration departments, all working together to identify defaulters and accelerate recovery. Advertisement
According to officials, the civic body had raised a demand of INR 237 crore in VLT for the last financial year, but managed to collect only INR 19 crore just over 8 percent of the target. Over the last five years, unpaid dues have accumulated to more than INR 870 crore.
One of the main reasons behind the poor collection is the difficulty in tracing owners of vacant plots. Many of them live in other cities or states and do not have updated contact information in the municipal records. The committee is now using sale deed information along with VMC and district data to locate these absentee owners.
To begin with, the committee has decided to send notices to the top ten defaulters in each secretariat. They will start this process in areas where the number of defaulters is relatively low, allowing officials to handle the cases more efficiently in the initial phase. Staff from VMC's revenue department, district administration, and registration office are being deployed to assist with tracing owners and serving notices.
The civic body is treating this as a high-priority revenue recovery task. With structured coordination between departments, the committee aims to push through with targeted actions to address this massive backlog.
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