Shahaji Pawar, assistant commissioner and chief of property tax
department, said the department was set a target of Rs 250.19 crore,
including Rs 196.19 crore as civic taxes and Rs 54 crore as state
government taxes. “The department has surpassed the target by Rs 11
crore,” he said.

He attributed it to the recovery of arrears from defaulters.

“The officers were directed to concentrate on those who had arrears of
more than Rs 5 lakh. The clerks and divisional officers were told to
focus on defaulters with arrears between Rs 1 and Rs 5 lakh. The
employees went to individual homes. Seizure notices were also sent to
big defaulters and many of them cleared their arrears in instalments.”

“There are 15 divisional offices of the property tax department in the
municipal limits. The department has sent appreciation letters to those
which achieved 80 % of the targeted collection. Municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi
had directed the department to collect a fine of Rs 5,000 from the
heads whose offices collect less than 60% of the target. Charholi
division was among those fined,” Pawar said.