With the recent spat among Thane Municipal Corporation officials, tax recovery seems to have taken a back seat. With merely a month to go for the financial year to end, the corporation still has to recover around 40% of the target set for this year.
In a review meeting on Wednesday, additional municipal commissioner Rajendra Ahivar asked the water and property tax department to recover 100% taxes or take severe action against defaulters.
As per the records of the accounts department, TMC has reached only 60% of its revenue target this year.
The property tax collection is ₹396.62 crore, which is 65.67% of the target set while the water tax collection is ₹112.36 crore (62.10% of the target set).
The town planning department has a collection of ₹647.88 crore, nearly 70% of its target.
Ahivar on Wednesday evening conducted a review meeting to take measures to improve the revenue collection.
A TMC official said, “The TMC commissioner has given an ultimatum to the property and water tax department to reach 100% target, otherwise stringent action would be taken against defaulters. Assistant commissioners, executive engineers and tax inspectors will have to identify property tax defaulters and serve them notices. If the tax is still not paid, properties will be sealed.”
Though TMC has proposed to increase the water tax, there is no effort to improve the tax collection from habitual defaulters. Ahivar has given orders to disconnect water connections of defaulters and seize the water pumps to ensure connections are not resumed.
{{/usCountry}}Though TMC has proposed to increase the water tax, there is no effort to improve the tax collection from habitual defaulters. Ahivar has given orders to disconnect water connections of defaulters and seize the water pumps to ensure connections are not resumed.
{{/usCountry}}An official from water department added, “We aim to collect around ₹160 crore water tax by March-end. We are targeting a daily collection of ₹1.5 crore which will increase to ₹1.9 crore in March. We have also deployed additional employees for the job of recovering taxes.”
TMC has also declared amnesty scheme for the defaulters who pay arrears till end of this financial year.
But, it has not got a good response.
The municipal corporation said the last week’s spat has no impact on the collection. An official said, “Every assistant commissioner and each department is doing their job of tax collection. We will conduct regular review meeting to focus on maximum collection by March-end.”
Residents said TMC should ensure that the honest taxpayers are not burdened with increase in taxes by ensuring maximum recovery.
Dinesh Gaikwad, 38, a resident of Kalwa said, “TMC had tabled a proposal to increase water tax in the general body this month. Instead of imposing taxes on honest taxpayers to increase revenue, TMC should focus on those who default taxes to increase the revenue. There are many who have defaulted taxes for over years. If TMC recovers the arrears, there will be no need to increase taxes.”