More properties to come under tax net

The target is to identify about 30,000 untaxed properties,but the civic administration is quick to admit that it is not sure how many untaxed properties are there in the city. “In the last two years,we have brought in 77,000 new properties under the property tax net. But we still have to identify a number of properties that are yet to be taxed. There are also a large number of properties that are not paying the tax,” Vilas Kanade,chief of the property tax department,said.

This drive would be carried out till February 2010 and the data collected by ward offices would be analysed in March. On the basis of this,the property tax department would start collecting tax from next financial year.

This year,till now,the civic body has collected Rs 290 crore and is targeting to add another Rs 100 crore in the last quarter of the fiscal.

“For the first time we have set a target for the 14 ward offices to identify properties on a daily basis. We have set 100-a-day target for the ward offices,but even if they were not able to meet this,the drive would still yield good results. In addition to the ward level squads,we have also formed 10 squads to keep a tab on tax defaulters,” Kanade said.

Even though the ward officers started the exercise to identify properties about a month ago,the ward officers said the daily work pressure and staff crunch is not letting them carry out the project in an effective manner. “So far,we have not been able to act according to the circular,as the routine work pressure and already skeletal staff strength is not allowing us to achieve the target set by the property tax department,” said one of the 14 ward officers.

“So far,we have assessed 600 properties. We take into account a number of factors such as whether a particular property has been rented out or occupied by the owner,” said Nitin Udas,officer of Karve Road ward office.