Nagpur: For 10 years, over 56,000 owners refused to pay property tax
Nagpur:- Of the more than 4 lakh property owners who did not pay property tax duties of more than Rs 676 crore, as many as 56,366 have been in default for more than 10 years and collectively owe Rs150 crore to the civic body.
This disclosure comes to prominence during an audit by the property tax department of NMC of the details of tax defaulters.
As per results, Laxmi Nagar tops the list with 6,102 property owners who have not paid property tax for more than a decade and owes to the NMC more than Rs50.41 crore. This was followed by Lakadganj, where 6,489 property owners had refused to pay Rs30 crore tax.
Similar is the situation in the Ashi Nagar area where 13,496 property owners have Rs17 crore tax dues outstanding. Under the Mangalwari district, as many as 7,889 property owners have defaulted over Rs12 Crore’s property tax.
Central Nagpur industrial hubs the Satranjipura and Gandhibag areas have relatively fewer property tax defaulters. According to the numbers, there are 3,888 defaulters in the Satranjipura zone who owe almost Rs4 crore while 1,723 property owners in the Gandhibagh zone were defaulting on little over Rs2 crore.
Most of the defaulters are housing societies in 10 years or more category. The department also compiled data of property owners who did not pay tax for five to ten years. According to the list, more than 1 lakh property owners did not pay property tax dues in excess of Rs367 Crore.
Under the category of five years, an audit by the department showed that 18,355 property owners did not pay property tax and that their outstanding stands above Rs22 crore.
With this revelation, the tax department ‘s functioning at the zonal level has come under the scanner. The Zone offices have also faced allegations of auctioning small tax defaulters property and ignoring big fish.
Sources in the NMC said the civic administration needs to boost the collection of property taxes as it is the key source of revenue for the body. The property tax department said that the civic body has taken a range of steps to boost tax collection and give the defaulters ample opportunity to clear the dues.
Sources said many property owners defaulted on the tax after raising objections in the calculation, while other major defaulters moved the department against the court. The agency has to speed up the mediation process for these cases. Zone offices would also be charged with increasing the collection of revenues, said sources.
