Two government offices, including a central government one, have paid property tax dues up to Rs 4.2 crore to the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), after the civic body began pursuing government offices to pay property tax.
Around 60 government offices — state and central — have defaulted property tax to the tune of Rs 20 crore.
According to NMC officials, the civic body recovered taxes from two offices, including one central government office which has signed an agreement with the NMC saying it would pay service charge instead of property tax.
“While one office on Nashik Road, which had defaulted for nine years, paid Rs 2.5 crore property tax, the central government office paid service charge of Rs 1.7 crore,” an NMC official said.
Officials said it is the norm that central government offices pay service charge instead of property tax. Hence, the civic body has levied service charge on city-based central government offices.
“We have already levied service charges on one central government establishment and are in the process of assessing areas of another central government establishment,” officials said.
NMC officials said they are approaching the government offices and requesting them to pay their tax dues at the earliest. “Our objective is to reach the property tax target of Rs 210 crore for the current financial year by December-end,” officials added.
There are around 50 offices of the various departments of the central government located across six divisions of the civic body, which include railways, post offices, Goods & Services Tax (GST), sales tax, central excise, income xax, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and many more.