In a significant stride for the urban development department, the 17 municipal corporations of the state have achieved a commendable 33% growth in revenue collection, reaching Rs 3,102 crore in the fiscal year 2023-24, compared to Rs 2,340 crore in the previous fiscal year.
This notable surge in revenue can be attributed to the proactive adoption of technology-based solutions for tax recovery, particularly in cities like Lucknow and Kanpur. Lucknow Municipal Corporation (including Jal Kal department) witnessed a substantial increase from Rs 687 crore to Rs 904 crore, while Kanpur’s revenue escalated from Rs 398 crore to Rs 534 crore. Notably, municipal bodies governing Moradabad, Firozabad, and Mathura recorded an impressive increase of around 70% in annual revenue compared to the previous financial year.
Amrit Abhijat, the Principal Secretary of the urban development department, highlighted three major focus areas aimed at boosting revenue collection: the implementation of a cumulative framework, the establishment of GIS-based databases, and the exploration of new revenue avenues. Moreover, incentive-based schemes were introduced for the first time in the state, incentivizing officials leading urban local bodies to enhance their performance.
Lucknow and Kanpur led in overall revenue collection, followed by Ghaziabad, Prayagraj, Agra, Varanasi, Meerut, Moradabad, Aligarh, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Jhansi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Firozabad, and Shahjahanpur. While house and water tax remained primary revenue sources, tax inspectors in Ghaziabad conducted thorough surveys of outdoor advertising billboards and hoardings, resulting in the collection of Rs 18 crore from operating companies.
However, Lucknow faced challenges in revenue generation from entrepreneurs in the food business, generating only Rs 12 lakh, while Ghaziabad, Kanpur, and Prayagraj collected Rs 7.2 crore, Rs 6.28 crore, and Rs 3.62 crore, respectively, in license fees and charges from food vendors. Kanpur emerged as a leader in penalizing establishments for the use of plastic items, generating Rs 3.15 crore in penalties, whereas Lucknow’s civic body could only impose penalties totaling Rs 39 lakh.
In the domain of animal registration, Lucknow emerged as the highest earner, generating Rs 47 lakh out of the state’s total revenue of Rs 86 lakh. Efforts are underway to reconcile final figures and tabulate data from the remaining 745 urban local bodies, a process expected to be completed within a fortnight.