NASHIK: The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has managed to collect Rs 206 crore as property tax in the last financial year (2023-24) — the highest property tax collection figure since the civic body was established around 40 years ago.
For the 2022-23 fiscal, the property tax collection figure of the civic body was Rs 188 crore. The NMC had set a property tax collection target of Rs 210 crore for the 2023-24 financial year that just concluded.
According to a civic official, the NMC fell short of meeting the target by Rs 4 crore as most of the staff from the property tax department was deployed on election duty. “We could not start the recovery drive against the defaulters during the crucial month of March due to a lack of manpower,” he said.
In the first quarter of the last fiscal (April-June), the civic body had introduced 8% rebate for those paying their annual property tax in one go. This initiative yielded good results and the civic body ended up collecting Rs 100 crore in those four months.
Out of all the six divisions, Cidco collected the maximum amount (Rs 44 crore) followed by Panchavati (Rs 40 crore), Nashik East (Rs 34 crore), Nashik West (Rs 33 crore), Nashik Road (Rs 32 crore) and Satpur division (Rs 23 crore).
In August, the property tax department of the NMC had served notices to 2.37 lakh defaulters for outstanding property tax dues amounting to Rs 470 crore. The NMC had directed the defaulters to clear their tax dues within 15 days failing to which the civic body would start the process of issuing warrants. This initiative yielded good results and the civic body collected Rs 35 crore in the next two months.
Meanwhile, the NMC also failed to achieve water tax collection target set for financial year 2023-24. The civic body had set a water tax collection target of Rs 75 crore, but could only collect Rs 54 crore.
