No amnesty scheme by AMC in 2022-23

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad:

The municipal commissioner Abhijeet Chaudhari today made it clear that the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is in no position to offer the amnesty scheme offering concession and discount in property tax as it has to achieve the target of collecting Rs 250 crore (property tax and water tax) in just five months.

It may be noted that the AMC would use to offer a 75 per cent discount in principal interest levied upon the property tax to enhance the tax collection, every year.

One cannot deny the fact that the financial condition of AMC is deteriorating every year. The GST share receives from the state government enables the AMC to pay staff salaries, and electricity bills and repay loan instalments.

In seven months of the current financial year (2022-23), the AMC succeeded in collecting Rs 58 crore as property tax and water tax. Presently, the AMC's focus is on simplifying the tax payment process. It is developing a separate portal and special software to provide online tax payment facilities for citizens. The tax section is also being computerised. This will help the citizens to pay property tax and water tax online (at their convenience). Hence the AMC is gearing up to focus aggressively on tax collection online as well as offline.

Chaudhari said,” The officers concerned have been given the targets of collecting property tax and water tax. They have been instructed to complete the target at any cost in the next five months (2022-23). As a result, AMC is not offering any kind of concession or discount to the property holders. The door-to-door distribution of demand note of property tax is underway, however, many parts of the city are yet to receive it. We are providing the citizens with a facility to pay their taxes on the spot through the point of sales (PoS) machines or by visiting their concerned ward (zone) office.”

Target Rs 308 crore

The target collection of taxes for the year 2022-23 is Rs 308 crore. It includes Rs 200 crore as property tax and Rs 108 crore as water tax. Of the total target Rs 58 crore has been collected by AMC, so far. The remaining Rs 250 crore has to be collected in five months. I appeal to the citizens to cooperate with the civic administration by showing promptness in paying their property tax and water tax, said the civic chief.