The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has rejected the proposal of the civic administration to hike property tax for FY 22-23.

According to the chairman of the standing committee, Prakash Bhoyar, the House will decide on the civic administration's proposal.

He said that the decision not to revise the property tax was taken due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit most sectors and sections of the society.

He added that the pandemic caused many financial losses, due to which the 16-member committee rejected the proposal for a 5-10% hike in property tax.

Bhoyar said that many departments, including the town planning department, have earned Rs 150 crore, compared to the target of Rs 84 crore for FY22.

He said that the civic body would waive off property tax for residents having 500 sq ft properties if the state government allocates additional funds.

According to provision 99 of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, the NMC property tax department submitted a proposal to the standing committee that the tax structure of FY23 should be proposed before the general body before 20 February.

Bhoyar said that the committee had decided that the tax revision in 2015-16 should be left unchanged and forwarded the decision to the general body.

Assistant municipal commissioner, Mahesh Dhamecha, said that the committee also backs the election department's demand of Rs 2.45 crore for works related to civic polls. Earlier, NMC spent around Rs 7.50 crore, keeping in mind the 7th Pay Commission implementation and now expects to spend Rs 10 crore for the elections.

Besides, the committee has also approved Rs 51.74 lakh for the maintenance of the Kavivar Suresh Bhat auditorium and road projects of Rs 1.41 crore in different localities.

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