The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has identified 1.3 lakh properties, both residential and commercial that have carried out additional constructions without permissions from the civic body.
The NMC is in the process of serving notices to the owners of such properties for seeking their views on the issue. But if the civic body is not convinced with their arguments, additional property tax would be levied on such properties. This would enable the NMC to mop up additional Rs25 crore from these additional constructions.
The NMC is taking such measures in a bid to increase the revenue of the civic body following the Centre’s guidelines. The civic body is looking at about 25% growth in property tax revenue during the financial year 2023-24.
The NMC levies property tax on the total construction areas of the properties, but some properties have carried out more constructions, which are not on record of the property tax department of the civic body.
Around four years ago, the NMC had come across 4.5 lakh properties in the city during the survey of entire properties in the city through a private agency.
Of these, 1.27 lakh existing properties had areas more than that registered with the civic body’s property tax department. The NMC charges property tax as per the areas of the properties. The civic body has lost revenue in crores as these 1.27 lakh properties had shown less areas, said NMC officials.
Moreover, the NMC also found some residential properties which used residential areas for commercial activities without ‘change in use’ permission from the civic body. The NMC levies commercial tax on properties used for commercial purposes.
The civic officials said that they are in the process of serving notices to all properties for hiding the correct areas of their properties from the property tax department. Moreover, we will also invite their objections about the additional areas found in their properties and levy of additional property tax on additional areas. We will immediately levy additional property tax on those who agree and reassess the properties, said NMC officials.
