Drummers hired to round up tax dodgers

HYDERABAD - Tax defaulters in southern India are being forced to face the music after city authorities hired drummers to play non-stop outside their homes until they pay up.

After many residents ignored repeated demands to settle overdue property taxes, authorities in a city in Andhra Pradesh state have sent 20 groups of drummers to play outside offenders' houses for the past week.

"They put up a spectacle outside the houses of defaulters, draw them out and explain their dues to them and the need to clear it at the earliest," said T S R Anjaneyulu, municipal commissioner of Rajahmundry city.

"They don't stop until people agree to clear the dues."

The city, owed a total of 50 million rupees ($NZ1.57 million), had been at its wits' end after sops like waiving interest and penalties had failed to recover the arrears.

The new method seems to be working, though. One week of incessant drumming has cleared 18 percent of the backlog.

- REUTERS