Aurangabad: A group of corporators has pressed for the need of conducting public hearings to resolve property tax-related grievances of citizens and establishments in order to improve civic body’s tax recovery figures.While the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has intensified measures for tax recovery, corporators have contended that variety of disputes related to charging of property tax was one of the major hurdles in meeting with the target.Standing committee chairman Gajanan Barwal has submitted a memorandum to the AMC, demanding to carry out special public hearings. Claiming that citizens were willing to pay the tax if fare assessment was done, he said that several pending disputes were affecting collection of property tax.“There exists special civic panel that is expected to look into grievances related to property tax. However, the pendency of matters with this panel has increased considerably over a period of time. As a standing committee head, I am ready to go to the public with this panel for resolving their grievances through special hearings,” he said.Alleged excess charging of property tax, penalty or interest along with matters pending before the courts account for considerable number of cases related to recovery of property tax. BJP corporator Pramod Rathod said minimizing tax related disputes would no doubt improve recovery.“The civic administration should initiate special measures to work out a solution in the grievances concerned. It would be a win-win situation if the solution is accepted to both the parties,” he said.Even if the financial condition of civic body is a matter of concern, the civic administration as well office bearers have been accused of paying no heed to improve tax recovery.The AMC had achieved only 12% tax collection as against the target collection of Rs 390 crore towards property tax by end of last year. City mayor Ghodele could not be reached for his comments as he was busy in Shiv Jayanti celebrations. Senior AMC official said organised measures were being taken to improve the tax recovery before March 31.

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