The Times of India          12.08.2013

Delayed digitization stalls collection of property tax

NASHIK: The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) is likely to complete the digitization of the properties records by this month end, after which property tax collection for this financial year will begin.

Along with computerization of various records, around 3.50 lakh properties have been digitized. During the process, records are being verified by checking the actual existence of the property. The exercise began from this financial year and is expected to be completed in a month.

This has delayed the issuance of property tax bills and the collection of the same in this financial year since April 2013.

"Of the six divisions of the city, only the West division has finished matching the digital properties with the actual property. The work of the other five divisions is going on and will be completed this month," said an NMC official, adding "From next month, the tax collection system will be regularized and we can start collecting the taxes."

The official said that the properties are being digitalized to make the system more effective and transparent. Digitization of properties will also help in making the tax recovery system more effective and increase the revenue of NMC through property tax, he added.

Also, the NMC has decided to merge the water and house tax departments for better management of tax collection with the available staff, as both the taxes can be collected at the same time by one person. The 162 employees will be allocated locations from where they can collect both the taxes from the property owners.

From this financial year, the NMC will be issuing half-yearly property tax bills instead of once a year as per the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 1949. Defaulters will be fined 2% of the bill amount.