NASHIK: Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has seen a significant increase in water cess and property tax collection during the ongoing financial year in comparison to the amount recovered in the same period last year. Property tax and water cess have been the main source of income for the municipal corporation.
Meanwhile, stringent measures like the beating of drums in front of the defaulters have added to the income of the NMC as the defaulters have started paying property tax and water bills themselves in large numbers. It is revealed from the statistics that there has been a significant increase in the collection of municipal taxes. Rs 89 crores have been recovered from property tax and Rs 16 crores from water cess. Efforts are being made by the tax collection department to ensure that the drums are not beaten if the citizens cooperate. The revenue collected from property and water taxes is an important factor in municipal income.
Currently, the financial condition of the municipality is desperate and due to arrears, the expected revenue is not being recovered. Due to the election work this year, the tax collection department somewhat neglected the collection.
Also, the tax collection department has insufficient manpower of only 90 employees to distribute and collect such a large amount of payments. Taking advantage of the delay in election work and payment distribution, defaulters turned their backs on property and water bill payments.
Against this backdrop, the tax collection department pushed for recovery. Final notices were issued for recovery from the arrears. If it did not get the expected response, after the fortnight of September, it was decided to beat the drums in front of the houses of the defaulters.
The result of this is that there has been a huge increase in collections in the last two weeks. Out of Rs 150 crores of property tax, the recovery of Rs 89 crores has been completed while out of Rs 51 crores of water cess, Rs 16 crores have been collected. It can be seen that the defaulters have taken the fear of infamy by beating the drum in front of the door.
Meanwhile, the NMC has not only made an announcement, but a tender process is being implemented to appoint a drum team to beat the drums. Soon these drum teams will be deployed in all the six divisions of the municipal corporation.
