The names of 600 big property tax defaulters have been made public by the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) as a part of its name-and-shame drive.
The civic body has uploaded the list of the defaulters on its official website and requested them to clear their dues at the earliest. These 600 defaulters owe over Rs 40 crore to the civic body — ranging from Rs 1 lakh to over Rs 20 lakh each. The dues have not been paid over the past few years despite issuance of several notices by the property tax department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation.
The list includes information like property tax index numbera, names of the defaulters with their complete address, current taxes and total dues.
An NMC official said that another list of defaulters will soon be made public on the official portal of the civic body.
“All small and big defaulters owe around Rs 200 crore to the civic body towards property tax. However, we are currently targeting only the big property tax defaulters with dues of over Rs 1 lakh,” the official said.
“The move to make the names of defaulters public will surely have an impact as the information will now be available in the public domain,” he added.
The NMC could not focus on collection of property tax during the last few months as its employees in the property tax department were engaged in works related to preparations for the civic elections.
The Nashik civic body had collected Rs 72 crore in the April-June period of the current financial year, but could collect only Rs 23 crore in the last three months (July-September).
The NMC has, so, far collected Rs 96 crore towards property tax during the current financial year as against Rs 77 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal.
During the financial year 2021-22, the NMC had collected property tax amounting to Rs 150 crore — highest ever collection by the civic body since its inception.