Civic body likely to map properties for tax collection

NAVI MUMBAI: The property tax department of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) is mulling to implement the Geographical Information System (GIS) to map properties to ease the property tax collection process from the fiscal year 2016-17.

Last year, the property tax department which was given a target of Rs516 crore achieved it by the end of the financial year. For the current year, the department has been given a target of Rs596 crore.

Officials from the property tax department said they are mulling different ways to recover the maximum target possible.

“We are discussing the idea to implement the GIS mapping system which will make the recovery process much handy,” said Prakash Kulkarni, in-charge of property tax department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).

“As of now, we have formed 2-3 teams of our officials who have to go to all the nodes to survey all the properties and initiate the tax collection process. There are several properties which make alterations to their properties without informing us and we find out during the survey,” Kulkarni added.

Last year, around Rs32 crore was recovered over and above the target through the survey which brought to the front properties which had made alternations to the area for which they have been paying the property tax. This led to higher tax amount dues.

Officials said that through the technology, all the properties under the NMMC jurisdiction will be linked under one roof.

This will help them to get notified whenever there are any changes or alterations made to any of the properties.

A comprehensive tender will soon be floated to appoint the agency for the GIS survey which will have to complete the work within six months.

Once, the system is on, citizen awareness programmes will also be held in all the wards.

“It would lead to more transparency besides helping us in earning our targeted revenue,” said the official.