Nagpur civic body collects only Rs 50 crore of Rs 1,000 crore property tax target in 41-day drive

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation ran a special 41-day drive to recover overdue property tax. Warning of action against large defaulters, it had set a target of recovering Rs 1,000 crore. When the drive ended, only Rs 50,04,04,391 had come into the corporation's coffers, about 5 per cent of the target.

The corporation's tax department ran the drive from August 20 to September 30. Municipal Commissioner Dr Vipin Itankar held meetings with officials during this period and directed them to recover tax from defaulters effectively.

Officials were given powers to cut water connections of defaulters, to seize property or goods and, if necessary, to put properties up for auction. Despite these powers, recovery fell short of expectations.

According to the corporation's figures, total property tax arrears stand at Rs 1,279.05 crore. Of this, Rs 683.66 crore is the principal tax and Rs 586.70 crore is penalty. A further Rs 8.69 crore is due as warrant charges.

Among zones, Laxmi Nagar led the recovery with Rs 10.91 crore. Hanuman Nagar yielded Rs 5.83 crore, Dhantoli Rs 5.61 crore, Lakadganj Rs 4.99 crore, Dharampeth Rs 4.50 crore and Ashi Nagar Rs 4.26 crore. Recovery of Rs 89.64 lakh was recorded from the corporation headquarters.

As the penalty on overdue tax is large, there had been demands to give defaulters relief. Tax Committee Chairperson Sarita Kaware and some BJP corporators had demanded a 50 per cent concession on the penalty amount. No consensus has yet been reached on the demand. It is said that defaulters did not respond to the drive as expected because no decision had been taken on waiving the penalty.