Nashik Municipal Corporation serves notices to 500 more property tax defaulters, taking total to 950

Nashik: The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has issued notices to an additional 500 property tax defaulters, each owing more than Rs 1 lakh in dues. They have been given 21 days to clear the arrears, after which warrants would be issued against them.Over the past two weeks, the property tax department has already sent notices to 450 defaulters, taking the total number of notices served in recent days to 950. As per regulations, annual property tax must be paid by Dec 31, after which a penalty of 2% per month is levied. Many taxpayers, however, failed to meet the deadline, prompting the civic body to initiate the action.NMC had set a property tax collection target of Rs 270 crore for the 2025-26 financial year but has managed to collect only Rs 218 crore so far. The corporation must now recover Rs 52 crore in the remaining 40 days to meet its target. This year's collection is also Rs 7 crore lower than the amount collected during the same period last year.Civic officials attributed the shortfall to staff being deployed for election duties over the past three months, which delayed tax recovery efforts. With elections now completed, staff have returned to their departments and resumed the year-end recovery drive.To accelerate collections in the final stretch of the financial year, NMC commissioner Manisha Khatri recently held a meeting with the property tax department and divisional officers from all six divisions, instructing them to expedite recovery from defaulters.