Many citizens are coming forward to avail of Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s amnesty scheme which was introduced to generate revenue during the economic slowdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since its launch a few days ago, as many as 2,040 tax defaulters have cleared their dues to the tune of Rs1.87 crore. Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B had announced the amnesty scheme for property tax defaulters on December 13.
The scheme was launched to recover dues which had crossed a whopping Rs600 crore. Besides this, currently, NMC’s outstanding demand from property tax is around Rs810 crore, including arrears.
As per Abhay Yojana-2020, citizens will get an 89% waiver on interest if they pay the dues till 2020-21 between December 15 and January 14. The waiver will be reduced to 50% if paid between January 15 to February 14 next year.
On December 15, the first day of the scheme, 425 property owners cleared their arrears amounting to Rs27 lakh and also deposited the current year’s property tax to the tune of Rs13.77 lakh. The NMC recovered Rs3.55 lakh via penalty.
On December 16, the second day, 440 property owners paid Rs29 lakh arrears and Rs3.46 lakh penalty. They also paid the current year’s property tax amounting to Rs15 lakh.
On December 17, 468 property owners turned up and paid Rs31 lakh arrears. They also paid Rs4.24 lakh as 20% penalty on their tax dues.
On Friday, 590 property owners paid Rs36.73 lakh arrears and Rs4.53 lakh in fine. The department also collected current tax (Rs18.01 lakh). On December 19, 117 property owners paid Rs8.34 lakh arrears. They also cleared their penalty of Rs1.85 lakh and current tax amounting to Rs5.71 lakh.
“Citizens coming forward to clear their dues is a good sign. They should pay the tax within the stipulated time frame which will be beneficial for both the owners as well as the NMC,” said standing committee chairman Vijay Zalke.
Meanwhile, the One Time Settlement scheme for water tax defaulters will commence from December 21, said the official.