Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
In a measure to establish financial stability, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) has decided to maintain the discontinuation in the concessions offered to recover long pending property tax dues from citizens paying it one time. The CSMC also stops concession to property-holders who had installed solar and rain water harvesting systems.
The CSMC levy’s compound interest on the principal amount of property tax. It collects 24 percent annually (2 percent per month) for the delay. To enhance the recovery, the civic body till a few years ago would offer 75 percent discount in the interest and would collect the principal amount with 25 percent interest only. This attraction was benefited by a large number of property-holders and also enhanced the recovery figures.
However, the municipal commissioner G Sreekanth after reviewing the figures of property tax and water tax collections took the above decision. He is conducting a zone wise review of the tax collection status from the officials concerned daily. He is interacting with the tax inspectors and other field staff. He instructed the civic staff to implement the collection drive from 6 am to 10 am in the morning and from 6 pm to 10 pm in the evening daily.
On Tuesday, he lent his ears to understand the problems faced by the field staff while implementing the recovery drive. During the interaction he made it clear to them that no concession will not be given to citizens unlike last year.
It so happened that the zone officials tabled a list of 123 properties from Zone Number 1 and 96 from Zone Number 8. There is a huge tax outstanding on them. The CSMC will now initiate seizure action against these 219 properties. Hence the section concerned would seize and then start the process of auctioning the property to recover the taxes.
The assessor and collector of tax and deputy commissioner Aparna Thete said that the administrator has also ordered a see-off on Monday to the recovery staff working on Saturdays and Sundays.
Landlords on radar
The civic chief also ordered the officials to settle the dispute of double entries of single property in different zones in one month. The civic chief also directed to seal the mobile towers. He said to jot down the meter-reading and collect the tax from the landlord (on whose property the mobile tower has been installed) till the date of action.
He also instructed them to update the details of property-holders like mobile number, full name etc in the office record.
The target collection of property tax for the year 2023-24 is Rs 250 crore and water tax is Rs 130 crore. As per the record, the CSMC has collected Rs 71.70 crore property tax and Rs 12.39 crore water tax (till mid of October). Total collection is Rs 86 crore.
Box
Status of property tax collection
Zone No - Amount of Tax (in crores)
01--5.39
02--6.06
03--2.01
04--6.48
05--18.22
06--5.73
07--11.90
08--12.68
09--9.60
Total –86