The increase comes after a gap of four years and in 1995 too rates were hiked by 10 per cent. The RMC will assess house tax on the basis of built-up area per square feet.

Deputy Municipal Commissionr P P Vyas when contacted said it was a routine hike. He said at the time of formulating the policy, it was decided to increase tax at regular intervals and the present increase was in keeping with the guidelines.

The Tax Department has also started hectic activity to meet the target for the current financial year. Bills have been dispatched to around 1.35 lakh property oweners and the department expects to recover taxes from these property oweners soon as an 18 per cent tax is levied in case of delay in payment.

The tax department is also carrying out assessment of newly merged areas which fall within the corporation limits. Tax officials say assessement work is in full swing and will soon be completed.

Officials said 3,000 property owners in the newly merged areas of RMC would be billed. They would, however, be given time to present objections on the assessement.

Meanwhile, the RMC's income from octroi has also increased in recent times. In the beginning of September, the civic body used to earn a daily income around Rs 11 lakh by way of octroi. This has increased to around Rs 20 lakh per day. This is because of increasing political pressure and also due to the festival season. The standing committee of the corporation had expressed fear that they would not be able to meet their target if there was no increase in octroi collection. Following this, Municipal Commissioner Raj Gopal had convened the meeting and directed employees to work towards increasing the income.