Patna: The last-minute rush by city residents to avail of the 5% rebate on lump-sum payment of property tax helped Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) register a record single-day collection of more than Rs3 crore on June 30.June 30 was the last day to avail 5% discount on payment of property tax.A total of 3,927 taxpayers deposited their taxes on Tuesday, prompting the civic body to keep all property tax collection counters open till midnight to accommodate the surge.The strict deadline helped PMC collect nearly Rs48 crore in property tax during the April-June quarter of the current financial year. According to figures released by the civic body, 1,24,641 taxpayers paid property tax during the first quarter, generating a total revenue of nearly Rs48 crore. The collection was over Rs5 crore higher than the corresponding period of FY 2025-26, when the corporation had collected more than Rs42 crore from 1,25,658 taxpayers.Among the six circles, Pataliputra circle contributed the highest revenue, collecting about Rs12 crore from 35,532 taxpayers. It was followed by New Capital circle, which collected over Rs11 crore from 23,973 taxpayers. Kankarbagh circle recorded collections of nearly Rs9 crore from 22,362 taxpayers, while Bankipur circle collected more than Rs7 crore from 18,378 taxpayers.Azimabad circle generated over Rs4 crore from 16,650 taxpayers, while Patna City circle collected nearly Rs 3 crore from 7,746 taxpayers.Owing to the June 30 deadline for the discount, there was heavy footfall at tax counters as residents sought to take advantage of the rebate offered by PMC for advance payment of property tax for FY 2026-27.PMC officials said the growth in collections reflects improved taxpayer participation and greater compliance in addition to the property tax rates increase.The first-quarter performance marks one of PMC’s strongest starts to a financial year, with collections rising by more than 12% compared to the same period last year.Despite long queues and intermittent server slowdowns at the Citizen Civic Centre, taxpayers turned up in large numbers. Manish Mishra from Naya Tola said, “I was initially sceptical about paying online, but seeing my neighbours do so, I skipped the long queues and tried doing the payment online, but due to the slow server I had to finally pay at the civic centre.”Ramendra Kumar from Boring Road said, “The property tax has increased by a lot this fiscal due to various factors. I needed to understand it, so I too went on to make the physical payment at the counter but ended up waiting for over three hours.”
