AMC lauded citizens for paying property tax online during pandemic

Aurangabad, Dec 29:

The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is pinning hope that its online tax-payers would let it down by depositing property taxes in large number by March-end. Meanwhile, the civic officials lauded the citizens for genuinely paying their property tax online during the pandemic situation.

The city was reeling under the threat of Coronavirus since March. The AMC was busy in taking appropriate measures to prevent the outbreak of the virus in the jurisdiction. The situation started to unlock since August, and it had created an impact on the tax collection during the financial year 2020-21. Henceforth, the development works were either put on hold or cancelled due to paucity of funds, on a large scale.

The systems manager (e-Governance Section) Nandkishore Bhombe and the in-charge IT section Adil Siddiqui pointed out that 11,440 property-holders deposited property tax of around Rs 5.72 crore through online between April 1 and December 27, 2020. In the last financial year (2019-20), 12,646 property-holders paid property tax of around Rs 6.47 crore through online. If compared the current year''s online collection with the last year, it highlights that despite the adverse situation in the city, the genuine tax-payers trusted the leadership of the municipal commissioner and administrator Astik Kumar Pandey and volunteered to pay their property taxes through online in good numbers in 2020-21. We are hopeful that the collection would exceed than last year in the coming three months period. The internet-savvy citizens should rush to deposit their property taxes at their convenience as early as possible, they appealed.

Challenge of recovering Rs 414 crore by March-end

As per AMC record, there are 2.75 lakh properties (including commercial) in the nine zones. A dedicated window is there in each zone, and one at the headquarter to collect the taxes. As per the office of assessor and collector of taxes (ACT), the AMC collected property tax of Rs 54.52 crore from April 1 to December 26, 2020. The target collection of property tax (including old outstanding) was Rs 468.57 crore during 2020-21. The current year''s property tax collection is less by Rs 10.68 crore compared to the collection made during the above period in 2019-20. The collection was Rs 65.21 crore. Hence the major challenge before the AMC is to recover Rs 414 crore in three months. When contacted, the officials concerned refused to comment on the recovery of figures.