Nagpur: With Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) intensifying its property tax recovery drive and initiating seizure proceedings against major defaulters, standing committee on Thursday rejected a demand to introduce Abhay (amnesty) scheme to provide relief on penalties.Congress corporator Wasim Khan and Muslim League group leader Aslam Khan raised the demand during the standing committee meeting, arguing that an amnesty scheme had benefited citizens over the past three years and would help property tax defaulters clear their dues. However, standing committee chairperson Shivani Dani categorically ruled it out.Dani said granting relief to defaulters would be unfair to citizens who had regularly paid their property taxes. Her stand comes at a time when the NMC is conducting a special recovery campaign from August 20 to September 30 to recover Rs 1,279 crore in outstanding property tax, including tax, penalties and warrant-related dues. The civic body has been stepping up coercive action, including property seizures and warnings of disconnection of water and sewer connections.“Honest taxpayers should not suffer because of those who have defaulted,” Dani said.She said property tax department had collected around Rs 37 crore in the past 19 days and had set a target of collecting more than Rs 250 crore in the next 45 days. The civic body has also prepared a list of 100 major defaulters and warned them of strict action if they fail to clear their dues.The aggressive recovery drive has already resulted in action against several major defaulters. On Wednesday, NMC initiated seizure and recovery proceedings against eight properties in Kachipura-Ramdaspeth area with cumulative property tax dues of Rs 8.81 crore.
