Aurangabad: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation has announced 75% concession on the penalty imposed on delayed payments of property tax but has not announced any such measure while collecting the water tax from citizens.The exclusion of water tax from the amnesty scheme has not gone down well with citizens and civic activists, who sense foul play behind the move.NCP spokesperson Surjeetsingh Khunger said the AMC must make public the rationale for not including water tax in the amnesty scheme. “The dues towards water taxes also run into crores of rupees, similar to the property tax. The local civic body has given least priority to water tax recovery as it had decided to hand over the water supply to a private firm,” he said.The AMC has set a target of recovery of Rs 450 crore towards the property tax from citizens. No such target, however, has been set towards water tax collection. The AMC and the private firm roped in for water supply and laying down of new main pipeline have been engaged in legal war over the ouster of the latter. The firm is likely to make comeback after ongoing mediation measures from the state government.Gajendra Dharashivkar, a resident of Mayur Nagar area, said there was reluctance among citizens to pay water tax due to erratic supply. “We get water after a gap of two days. Often, the taps go dry due to issues with the city's water supply scheme. The civic authorities must announce amnesty scheme for the water tax in the wake of all these issues,” he said.MIM leader Gaffar Quadri said privatisation of the city's water supply has already made per capita water consumption in Aurangabad costlier that several other metros. “The elected representatives remained silent when unjust water tariff was fixed. How can we expect them to take a fair stand now during the recovery of dues,” he said.When contacted, city mayor Nandkumar Ghodele refuted the charges that the water tax collection had been deliberately excluded from the amnesty scheme. “We will consider offering a concession in the recovering of penalty towards water tax dues also. Our ultimate aim is to improve the revenue of municipal corporation.”Ghodele also said that AMC has released a separate amnesty scheme for illegal water connections and the targeted citizens must take benefit for it.

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