Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has not yet raised property tax invoices, which will affect revenues and development works. Sources attribute this delay to the non-completion of calculation of Annual Letting Value (ALV) of properties. Till August-end, NMC has completed ALV calculation of only 6% property owners from three wards. There are a total of 5,85,660 properties (5,13,835 residential and 71,825 non-residential/commercial) on record.
The officials pointed out that before issuing invoices, the department will have to give 21 days to property owners to submit suggestions and objections. These suggestions and objections from property owners of ward numbers 5, 43 and 57 will be heard on September 5, 11 and 13, respectively. Subsequently, NMC will generate property tax invoices of the 38,974 owners. The tax invoices of property owners from these three wards will incorporate suggestions and objections raised by the citizens.
According to media reports, though it is a direct tax, NMC has never able to achieve property tax targets set by standing committee chairmen. In the current financial year, Jadhav increased the property tax target by almost Rs260 crore from the past standing committee chairman’s target of Rs300 crore. The zonal offices failed to achieve even half the target.
The budgetary estimates pegged property tax collection target at Rs564 crore for the 2017-18 financial year. With the speed the tax department is working, it seems difficult that NMC will achieve the property tax target set by standing committee chairman Sandip Jadhav.
Sources suggested NMC should target suburbs as there are lakhs of unassessed properties there. The civic body should bring those properties under tax ambit and improve revenue collection, sources said, adding that NMC has the potential to generate Rs500 crore from property tax department alone.
A senior official from the NMC claimed that work of ALV based property tax assessment is in final stages and from October NMC will start generating and issuing property tax invoices.
