NAGPUR: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has wrapped up its property tax rebate scheme, which aimed to incentivise timely payments, on December 31, 2024, collecting Rs83.6 crore from 1,63,813 property owners during the period July 1 to December 31, 2024. The scheme offered a 10% rebate for online transactions and a 5% rebate for offline payments during this period. While it encouraged many taxpayers to clear their dues, a significant number failed to take advantage of the opportunity.
The rebate scheme for the financial year 2024-25, introduced by municipal commissioner and administrator Abhijeet Chaudhari, initially offered higher discounts of up to 15% online and 10% offline for those who cleared their dues before June 30, 2024. By that deadline, NMC collected Rs76.85 crore from 1,58,735 taxpayers.
So far, NMC has collected Rs162.45 crore property tax in this fiscal.
Out of the city’s 7.40 lakh property owners, 3.22 lakh have availed benefit of the rebate scheme. The remaining 4.17 lakh taxpayers, who missed the chance to benefit from discounts, will now incur a 2% monthly interest on their outstanding dues.
A close look at the collections from July 1 to December 31 shows that Nehru Nagar tops the chart with Rs10.89 crore paid by 24,526 property owners, followed by Ashi Nagar zone with Rs9.51 crore and Laxmi Nagar zone contributing Rs8.72 crore. Dharampeth zone was at the bottom of the table collecting Rs4.70 crore from 5,820 property owners.
Despite the civic body’s efforts to promote online payments and reduce irregularities, many taxpayers still prefer traditional payment methods. Between April 1 and December 31, only 36.15% of property owners opted for online payment, while around 1.95 lakh taxpayers chose cash as their mode of payment.
The focus has now shifted to meeting the overall revenue target for the financial year. In his 2024-25 budget, Chaudhari set an ambitious goal of Rs350 crore for the property tax department. With Rs162.45 crore tax collected so far, NMC will have to recover Rs187.55 crore in the remaining three months of the fiscal.
Deputy commissioner (Revenue) Milind Meshram has urged defaulters to clear their dues promptly, emphasising that the revenue is critical for funding essential city development and infrastructure projects. With the penalty for late payments now in effect, NMC hopes to encourage quicker compliance while focusing on achieving its financial targets to support Nagpur’s growth.
Source Homevior.in
