Nagpur Municipal Corporation to auction 97,000 open plots to recover Rs 446 crore tax dues

NAGPUR: To recover Rs446 crore property tax dues from defaulter open plot owners, the cash-strapped Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has decided to auction over 97,000 lands across the city.
Deputy municipal commissioner (revenue) Milind Meshram confirmed the development and said a prabhag-wise list of defaulting open plot owners is being prepared.
Data compiled by the NMC’s property tax department revealed that total Rs446 crore was outstanding from 97,724 open plot owners from all 10 zones. Of which, highest number of defaulters in open plot category is from Ashi Nagar zone. Here around 28,662 open plot owners have defaulted on Rs128.24 crore tax dues.
It was followed by Lakadganj zone, where 11,274 open plot owners have not paid Rs64.50 crore tax, followed by 7,994 owners from Laxmi Nagar zone who owe Rs62.31 crore dues.
Gandhibagh zone has the lowest number of open plot defaulters — 87 — who have collectively a little over of Rs47 lakh pending dues against them, the data revealed.
Warning the defaulters, Meshram said owners may also face prosecution and property attachment if they do not clear the dues soon. “The process to recover all dues has already begun though our objective is not to auction the properties, but if defaulters do not pay the tax dues, we will be forced to do that,” he said.
According to Meshram, once the auction process is started, it cannot be halted until the bidding is complete or dues are cleared by the owners.
Sources said after abolishment of octroi and replacement of local body tax (LBT) with goods and services tax (GST), property tax has become the main revenue source of the NMC. However, the civic body has never achieved the annual target of tax recovery set either by the administration or by the standing committee.
Due to poor collection, outstanding property tax amount from both property and open plot owners has crossed Rs600 crore.
Sources say the civic body is desperate to generate revenue as several projects have been stalled due to paucity of funds.
“Even before seeking Rs500 crore from Maharashtra government to complete various projects, NMC should have recovered Rs446 crore property tax dues from all the property owners across the city,” say sources.