Navi Mumbai: NMMC chief Abhijit Bangar comes down heavily on officials for slow pace of property tax collection

Navi Mumbai: NMMC chief Abhijit Bangar comes down heavily on officials for slow pace of property tax collection

Amit SrivastavaUpdated: Wednesday, August 18, 2021, 05:46 PM IST
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Navi Mumbai: NMMC chief Abhijit Bangar comes down heavily on officials for slow pace of property tax collection | FPJ Photo

Abhijit Bangar, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Commissioner, has directed the property tax department to fix the time limit for completion of proceedings for confiscation or auction of 161 properties which have been seized for not paying pending property taxes. The civic chief also showed displeasure over the slow rate of property tax collection this year so far.

“Property tax is one of the major sources of revenues of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and in order to continue the development works in the city, it is necessary that citizens pay the property tax in time,” said civic chief Bangar, during a review meeting of tax collection held early this week.

As per the property tax department, there are 568 tax defaulters of over Rs 50 lakh. “We have already attached 161 properties from 568 defaulters,” said an official from the Property tax department. Apart from 161 whose properties are attached, others have issues like double payment or technical problems in making payment. The civic chief directed that a committee should be formed and resolve the double payments and other issues in a timely and transparent manner.

Bangar directed to fix the time limit for the auction of properties attached by the civic body. A total of 161 properties have been attached so far.

The collection of tax was severely affected during the financial year 2020-21 due to COVID-19. However, taking into account the earlier recovery of property tax in the financial year 2019-20, Bangar directed officials to keep in view the objective of recovery more than 2019-20 and also pay special attention to the recovery of arrears. “In the year 2019-20, a total of Rs 178 crore property tax was collected till August 12. However, during the current financial year 2021-22, the total collection by August 12 is Rs 180 crores which is not satisfactory,” said Bangar.

Bangar instructed officials to put hard work into tax collection especially officials at the civic headquarter. “The role of the officers at the headquarters level is more important than that of the officers in the ward in the recovery of property tax arrears,” he said.

He also directed to fix the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for duplicate payments as well as corrections in payments and to take immediate action accordingly.

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