Poor tax recovery leads to suspension of two civic personnel

By Lokmat English Desk | Published: November 22, 2021 06:45 PM2021-11-22T18:45:09+5:302021-11-22T18:45:09+5:30

Lokmat News Network Aurangabad, Nov 22: The additional commissioner of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), B B Nemane, today has ...

Poor tax recovery leads to suspension of two civic personnel | Poor tax recovery leads to suspension of two civic personnel

Poor tax recovery leads to suspension of two civic personnel

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Nov 22:

The additional commissioner of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), B B Nemane, today has issued suspension order of two personnel on the charge of dereliction of duty in recovering property and water taxes. The civic official also terminated the services of five contractual personnel. Meanwhile, a sensation due to the stern action.

The target collection of property tax for the current year is Rs 468.54 crore, out of which, Rs 70.72 crore has been collected in the last nine months. The AMC has deployed 250 personnel (regular and contractual staff) on the task of tax collection in all nine zones of the city. Each zone is given a target of collecting Rs 50 lakh daily. The target collection of water and property taxes for the current year is Rs 608 crore. Earlier, the civic personnel complained of facing several hindrances in recovering the taxes due to Covid-19, till the month of August.

Now, the situation has been eased and the daily routine and other works have been resumed. However, the senior officials noticed the collection performance of some personnel was not satisfactory. Hence, the additional commissioner issued suspension of junior clerk Sadashiv Autade (of Zone II) and junior engineer Bhaskar Kaknate (Zone IX). He also ordered to stop the services of five contractual staff, said the deputy commissioner Aparna Thete.

There are 135 personnel working in various sections of the AMC. In each zone, there are around 10-15 contract personnel, who are deployed on the task of recovering taxes. The AMC spends around Rs 2.30 lakh per month on their salary and Rs 25 lakh per anum. In the name of recovery, a majority of these personnel remain out of their zonal office for the whole day in connection with the works of their vested interests. Besides, many of whom are close and distant relatives of political leaders, it is learnt.

List of Properties

The civic administration to simplify the collection process has prepared a list of properties and handed it over to each staff. . Their job is to contact the property-holders as per the list and pursue them for the taxes daily. These personnel have also been told to revise the old tax if they noticed any new construction in the old property. Despite issuing orders, the AMC personnel and the contractual staff were not paying heed. Hence the action.

Earlier, the civic personnel would complain that the corporators would refrain them from visiting their wards and pressurising people to pay the taxes. Presently, there is nobody, so there are no corporators to oppose them, then also the performance has not been improved, it is observed.

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