NASHIK: The standing committee of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday decided to increase property taxes for commercial establishments by 25% and exempt residential properties from the tax hike. It also decided to digitalize all properties within NMC limits and encode them to make tax recovery simplified and increase its revenue.

The tax hike for commercial establishments will be in force from the next financial year 2013-14. The administration had proposed a tax rise for both residential and commercial properties, but standing committee chairman Uddhav Nimse cancelled the proposal of the NMC administration to raise house and water taxes for residential propertiesand gave consent to 25% rise in house and water taxes for commercial properties.

"We have decided to increase house and water taxes for commercial establishments from the next financial year, but residential properties have been exempted from any tax rise. Besides, commercial tax will be levied on petty businesses run in residential properties, such as beauty parlours, coaching classes, tailoring shops, grocery stores, music classes and professional consulting offices of lawyers, chartered accountants and doctors," said standing committee chairman Uddhav Nimse.

"To simplify recovery of property tax and increase NMC revenue, we have decided to digitalize all properties within NMC limits. These properties will be given a coding number and new code numbers will be given to new properties. This will help make assessment of properties simpler. The digitalization work will commence in the next few months," municipal commissioner Sanjay Khandare said.