Nagpur Municipal Corporation approaches city survey office to auction properties of tax defaulters

NAGPUR: After failing to recover pending dues from property tax defaulters even after several efforts, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is now going to auction selected properties in Ashi Nagar zone soon. The civic body is expected to recover around Rs 3.30 crore from the first phase of auction in which 19 properties would be brought under the hammer.
It is for the first time the NMC would auction attached properties and change the ownership with the city survey office. Though the NMC had been attaching properties in the past, for the first time it will be auctioning them. The NMC will enter its name over the defaulter properties at city survey office.
Ashi Nagar zone's assistant municipal commissioner Harish Raut submitted a list of defaulters, whose properties were already attached by the zone for recovery of outstanding property tax, with the city survey office seeking transfer of ownership of these properties in the name of Nagpur Municipal Corporation. In its letter to the city survey office, Raut informed that the zone had already issued warrants before attaching these properties. He said that by auctioning the properties, the civic body will recover its property tax dues to the tune of Rs 3,30,20,000.
Once attached properties are transferred in the name of NMC, the process of 19 properties to be auctioned soon will be made public, municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane told TOI. The attached properties will be auctioned under the sections of Municipal Corporation Act 1956.
Some of the biggest defaulters, whose properties will be auctioned, include the land of Asha Arvind Henry, who has pending dues to the tune of Rs 7.12 lakh. She is followed by Anushaya Meshram who has defaulted property tax worth Rs 5.48 lakh.
In last financial year, the NMC has generated a revenue of Rs186 crore from property tax as against the target of Rs222 crore. In 2012-2013 fiscal, revenue earned from property tax was Rs167.32 crore.
Even after repeated reminders to defaulters to pay outstanding property tax, the NMC had a very bad experience as hardly around 15% of them responded to the notices. "It is an alarming situation as despite increasing number of properties, the tax generated from this source is very poor. So we have decided to act strictly that will include auctioning of those properties whose owners fail to clear their dues," said Wardhane.
"Past experiences have shown that the public display of the names of tax defaulters works for us, as almost 90% of those whose name figure in the list end up paying their dues as social prestige is attached to it," he said, adding that the list would be displayed in other areas also so that fast recovery of dues could be achieved. Interestingly, though the NMC had sent auction notices to defaulters in previous years, it never took the harsh step.