Nagpur: Taking a serious note of dismal Property Tax collection and missing the target set in the civic body’s budget, Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Radhakrishnan B ordered issuance of show cause notices to all Assistant Commissioners of 10 Zones of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The Tax Inspectors in the zones also have been pulled up for laxity, local media reports said.
Property Tax is now the single biggest source of revenue for the civic body and Municipal Commissioner has been constantly monitoring the mop-up as the target for year 2022-23 is Rs 350 crore. For the current year, the increase is of modest Rs 23 crore over the previous financial year. The show cause to Assistant Commissioners and Tax Inspectors is over delay in sanctioning mutation proposals submitted by the citizens.
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Friday 20 Dec. 2024
As per rules, a mutation proposal has to be processed within a period of 15 days after submission of documents by the taxpayer, said Milind Meshram, Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), NMC, while talking to a local newspaper on Thursday. Meshram, in show-cause notices, asked for fixation of responsibility for delay in finalisation of mutation proposals. Instructions were issued in the past to hold special camps to process mutation applications so that property tax data can be updated on a real time basis.
However, still it is observed that field officers are not taking their duties seriously. One of the reasons for lesser realisation of property tax has been laxity in processing the mutation proposals. After identifying the lacunae, a fixed time period was finalised and it was expected that Tax Inspectors would carry out the needful. Role of Assistant Commissioners is that of supervisory, and they have to ensure that mutation proposals are not kept pending. However, on numerous occasions, tax payers have to trudge to head office and meet senior officers as zonal Tax Inspectors are sitting upon mutation proposals.
Post abolition of Octroi, Property Tax is prime revenue for NMC and any dip has direct reflection on development works in the city. In the aftermath of COVID-19 outbreak, the civic body is struggling to meet the stipulated tax collection target forcing NMC bosses to trim down the expenses and scale down development proposals.
Meanwhile, the Revenue Department has gone hi-tech and developed an App to monitor the tax collection. A database of all properties has been created that ensures senior officers keep effective tap on progress achieved by Zones on the tax collection front. The App can provide information upto 100 meters range. At a click of a button one can know about the past tax paid, any dues and if payment is made within the stipulated date automatic rebate is also calculated. For the same NMC has bagged Rajiv Gandhi Prashaskiya Gatimanta Puraskar. However, the achievement on the IT front has brought in transparency in work, the tax mopup is still lagging as mismatch in names of property owners is still a big issue and needs to be sorted out.
