The Times of India 21.03.2014
Civic body recovers Rs 40L from APMC shopowners
AURANGABAD:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Thursday sealed 25 shops
at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) premises and recovered
property tax of close to Rs 40 lakh from the shopowners. Tax collection
in charge in the AMC, Shivaji Zanzan, said that the 25 shops were sealed
in the morning hours but 15 of them were opened after the shopowners
cleared the outstanding amount.
"It was a satisfactory day for
the tax recovery department," he said. Since the AMC initiated tax
collection drive against the APMC shopowners, it has recovered a total
of Rs 76 lakh.
The AMC is eyeing recovery of Rs 5 crore from
APMC shopowners till March 31 and to speed up the tax recovery, the AMC
has set a special camp in the market. But sources in the AMC said that
reaching the Rs 5 crore mark is not a possibility. "The AMC has reduced
the tax amount of all the shopowners and thus the total collection
should be in the range of Rs 1.5 crore," the source said.
About
907 shopowners in the premises have been evading property tax since
1998. They were demanding reassessment in the tax saying that the civic
body should levy property tax as per the net rateable value (NRV) of
1998 instead of its value in 2006.
After the construction of
907 shops in 1998, the APMC had allotted it to 826 owners. Some of the
shopowners had purchased two blocks. The APMC was supposed to collect
the tax from the occupants and pay it to the civic body. But there was
dispute over this process.
In 2006-07, it was decided that the
shopowners will directly pay the tax to the AMC. And the municipal body
had issued tax notices based on NRV of 2006 but the occupants wanted it
as per the NRV of 1998.
Zanzan said that the civic body had accepted the demand of the shopowners and issued new bills to them.
Meanwhile, the AMC on Thursday collected Rs 53.37 crore on account of
property tax and Rs 17.69 crore under the head of water charges in
2013-14. "The total collection has touched Rs 71.06-crore mark," Zanzan
said.
