Thane: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) introduced a scheme and granted 90% relief on the penalty amount for property tax defaulters in a bid to clear pending tax receipts.The announcement was made recently by Thane mayor Sharmila Pimplolkar following requests, officials said. “The administration consulted Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde and municipal commissioner Saurabh Rao, and accordingly, the announcement was made with the aim of easing the burden of penalties on the defaulters,” officials informed. “Under the plan, residential property owners who pay their pending tax will have to pay only 10% of the penalty amount while the other 90% will be waived off. Presently, the corporation is staring at Rs 308 crore as tax arrears, on which Rs 191 crore is expected to be recovered as penalty. However, now, after the waiver of 90%, we end up losing roughly Rs 172 crore, collectively, provided all the defaulters utilise this scheme and pay their dues,” explained an official. It may be recalled that the recovery target of property tax for the 2026-26 fiscal year is Rs 840 crore, of which Rs 670 crore was already collected. According to an official, the corporation is staring at a huge deficit in terms of tax defaults and, with the fiscal year ending soon, it wants to maximise its recovery.The property tax payments can be made at all ward-level collection centres from 10.30 am to 5 pm on working days, and from 10.30 am to 4 pm on weekends and public holidays. Online payments are available via the TMC website and through UPI apps too. To simplify payments, the TMC also introduced a WhatsApp and chatbot system. Meanwhile, alert residents claimed the provision was unjust to those paying their bills on time.
