NASHIK: The civic body is set to implement geographic information system (GIS) mapping of all properties within the city limit.
At present, the city has over 5.2 lakh properties on record with the property tax department. Moreover, properties that are still not on record will also be identified due to GIS mapping.
Officials of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) said each property will be given an index number that will have information on built-up area and other details. Information regarding each property will be available at a click.
NMC officials said that this will help the civic body identify properties that are being used by residents, but on which property tax is yet to be levied. This will bring new properties under the tax net and help increase the revenue of the civic body.
Moreover, all the properties are to be distributed property tax bills through a private agency. Currently, the civic body is facing an acute manpower shortage. Therefore, outsourcing of property tax bills distributions through a private agency will help the civic body focus on recovery of tax from defaulters, said NMC officials. “Property tax bills will be distributed on time so that prompt tax payers are able to clear their dues at the earliest,” they added.
NMC officials said mapping of both authorised and non-authorised slums are also to be done so that the civic body is able to put a check on illegal slums in future.
The civic body has set a property tax collection target of Rs 210 crore for the current financial year. NMC commissioner Ashok Karanjkar has told the civic officials to achieve the target by December-end this year. So far, the civic body has collected Rs 135 crore. It is yet to collect Rs 75 crore of property tax.
