Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation collects property tax worth INR 453 crore

The Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation’s (KDMC) property tax department has added INR 453 crore to the municipality's coffers by implementing an aggressive tax collection campaign in the last three months. The property tax collection target for the year 2024-25 was INR 500 crore. Due to this, the collection has fallen short by INR 67 crore. 

According to the statistics from the Abhay Yojana for the last fifteen days, an amount of around INR 60 crore has been collected through the Abhay Yojana implemented for water and property tax arrears in the last four to five months. Last year, property tax collection was about INR 100 crores more than the target.

Property tax is the main source of revenue for the municipality. Commissioner Dr. Indurani Jakhar had been holding meetings with property tax officers for the last six months to ensure that property tax collection should be at the target level. Orders were given to disconnect the properties and water connection of the defaulters. If the defaulters do not pay their tax and water dues despite repeated notices, their properties are ordered to be seized and auctioned.

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As per this order, in the last four days, the KDMC has sealed more than 28 properties in ten wards due to outstanding dues of INR 54 lakhs. It is proposed to seize more than 20 properties and auction them. To avoid action, many defaulters paid the outstanding amount to the action team online on the spot. For the past month, Deputy Commissioner of Property Tax Swati Deshpande has been visiting every ward and trying to recover taxes from defaulters. The offices of banks and establishments that did not pay property taxes were being sealed.

As Commissioner Dr. Jakhar is keeping a close eye on the tax collection campaign, the Assistant Commissioners in each ward were staying in the office till late at night to plan tax collection in addition to administrative work to avoid any delay in action. Due to this aggressive tax collection campaign, tax collection of INR 453 crore has been achieved.

The officials are worried that the amount is not being recovered due to the high amount of property tax arrears for many years. The officials are of the opinion that the property tax in this controversial case will never be recovered. Officials are expressing the need for the government to take a policy decision on this.