NAGPUR: Paucity of funds clubbed with default in property tax payments have prompted the municipal administration to launch an extensive recovery drive in the city.
For the current financial year, the NMC has set for itself a target to earn Rs 300 crore in property taxes. Till November 20, Rs 150 crore have been added to the corporation exchequer. This is an increase of Rs 35 crore for this financial year (till November 21) as compared to the previous financial year.
In a step towards increasing collection, the NMC has started attaching properties and conducting public auctions. Under the provisions of section 128 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act and the provisions of Taxation Rule 47, the NMC has the right to seize and impound relevant immovable property and the movable property in that property and sell them by auction to recover the arrears.
Additional municipal commissioner Anchal Goyal too has instructed assistant municipal commissioners of all 10 municipal zones to recover the arrears.
Also, all zone assistant commissioners were instructed to complete the proceedings under the property tax recovery warrants issued for 1,356 defaulters and collect the outstanding property tax amount of Rs 25 crore by December 5, 2023.
A total of 551 property owners, who have defaulted on municipal corporation tax and have arrears of more than Rs 5 lakh, owe a tax amounting to Rs 437 crore to the NMC.
The property tax department has also identified 2,368 property owners who owe between Rs1 lakh and Rs5 lakh and have not paid up collectively Rs 42.63 crore.
The data revealed that the highest number of defaulters (above Rs 5 lakh) come from Laxmi Nagar zone, where 115 property owners owe Rs 94.96 crore to the NMC, followed by 91 under Dhantoli zone who have not paid Rs 32.13 crore.
