The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) faced a setback in its property tax collection efforts for the 2024-25 fiscal year, as more than one-third of tax demand bills delivered to India Post were returned undelivered. Of the 564,188 tax invoices issued across ten zones, 189,190 (or 33.53%) were returned by the postal department due to reasons such as incorrect addresses and locked homes.

In an effort to improve tax collection, NMC had entered into an agreement with India Post to deliver tax invoices to property owners' addresses, paying Rs 32 per article for this service through India Post’s speed post facility. However, the delays and inefficiencies in the delivery of these invoices had a direct financial impact on both property owners and the NMC. Approximately 189,000 property owners who did not receive their invoices on time missed out on a 10% (offline) to 15% (online) rebate on property tax payments, which was effective until 30 June. This rebate was intended to ease the financial burden on residents and encourage timely tax payments.

A senior official, who was privy to the situation, stated that to address the issue of undelivered bills, NMC teams from all ten zones would now distribute the remaining invoices directly to property owners. The outstanding property tax arrears currently stand at nearly Rs 8.5 billion, with the demand for the current financial year amounting to Rs 2.8 billion. Further delays or failures in distributing tax invoices could severely impact NMC’s revenue generation. A senior official from NMC’s accounts and finance department acknowledged that property tax is a major revenue source for the civic body and that these funds are essential for strengthening Nagpur’s civic infrastructure, including road repairs and sanitation projects.

Delivery failures varied across different zones, with the Nehru Nagar zone experiencing the highest number of returns. Of the 84,206 bills sent to India Post for this zone, 41,419 were returned, which accounted for 49.18% of the total. The Hanuman Nagar zone also reported a significant number of returns, with 22,213 out of 73,721 bills being returned, reflecting a 30.12% undelivered rate. These figures indicated that a large proportion of property owners in these areas were unreachable. On the other hand, Dhantoli had the lowest rate of returns, with only 1,089 out of 20,893 bills returned, resulting in a 5.21% undelivered rate.

Given that nearly one in three bills was returned undelivered and many property owners missed out on rebate opportunities, it is evident that NMC needs to take urgent measures. Improving address verification and updating property records will be crucial to ensuring that more residents receive their bills on time, allowing them to meet their tax obligations and helping NMC avoid further setbacks in revenue collection.