Bhubaneswar: In view of the Supreme Court’s recent observations on the conversion of residential buildings into commercial ones, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to conduct a door-to-door survey from Aug to obtain an exact break-up of commercial and residential buildings.At present, BMC does not have a segregated list of such holdings. The survey will help BMC assess holding tax, which is calculated separately for the two categories. The lack of data on commercial holdings does not augur well for BMC’s revenue generation, as the tax slab for commercial holdings is significantly higher than that for residential holdings, officials said.“We have the total list of 1.19 lakh holdings which were enumerated in 2024. But in terms of total holdings, it could cross 2 lakh now, with many residential buildings having meanwhile been modified and converted for commercial activities,” said BMC deputy commissioner Suryamani Pattjoshi.Pattjoshi said the survey will also help the enforcement wing, planning section and traffic authorities to strategise accordingly. “If commercial activities have come up in certain areas, thus changing the dynamics of people’s footfall, vehicular movement and rush, strategies will be drawn accordingly to decongest. If there is a deviation from the plan, the planning wing will swing into action and the revenue wing will calculate holding tax as per commercial rates,” said a BMC officer.BMC said new buildings have come up in the city and do not fall under the tax ambit. It said the assessment of left-out holdings should be carried out to increase the number of holdings for tax calculation.BMC has engaged a private agency, which will deploy surveyors to identify new holdings, classify them as residential or commercial, and provide the database, Pattjoshi added.BMC officials said necessary guidelines have been issued to the zonal offices to assist the private agency with logistics so that the unassessed list can be prepared and tax assessed.Holding tax is an important component of BMC’s revenue. Apart from educational institutions, govt and commercial establishments, and residential houses pay holding tax every year based on the annual assessment carried out by the civic body.BMC officials said that in the 2025-26 financial year, the civic body targeted Rs 200 crore in holding tax, but it could collect Rs 120 crore, with around Rs 80 crore pending from defaulters. In March alone, BMC collected Rs 53 crore, indicating that the marathon drive, publicity of the defaulter list, and repeated follow-ups in March yielded results.
