AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has tabled a proposal before the standing committee that the
property tax
be increased by 25%.
According to the AMC administration, there has been no increase in the property
tax
since 2012-2013. The proposal was placed before the standing committee meeting on Friday, but since the meeting ended without any discussion, the proposal will now be taken up in the next meeting of the panel.
Incidentally, the AMC administration has been criticised for its poor tax recovery. The civic administration was asked to ensure good tax recovery by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar during his recent visit to the city. On January 9, state chief secretary Ajoy Mehta had asked the AMC administration to ensure that its recovery is improved.
However, with the AMC general elections scheduled for April, the standing committee is in a fix over approving the tax hike. The increase in taxes would invite discontent from voters.
Meanwhile, in the current financial year, the AMC has collected 45% of the target set for property tax collection. On Friday, AMC tax officer Karan Chavan said property tax collection of Rs 95.88 crore has been done till now, as against a target of Rs 211 crore. The collection is 8.37% more than previous year.
“The AMC has collected Rs 20.47 crore towards water tax. As the data was not available for water consumers, no target was set for water tax collection,” Chavan said.
Talking about the measures taken to improve the tax recovery over the next one month, Chavan said the drive to increase property tax recovery from commercial properties, the process of printing bills based on the water consumer data has begun and dhol tasha squads are working to encourage recovery from major defaulters in each ward.
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