Aurangabad: The Aurangabad civic body’s tax recovery drive from January 12 to January 31 ended on Thursday without achieving the set target.The civic body had aimed to collect Rs 23 crore during the 18-day drive. The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had offered a 50 percent discount on interest during the drive, which was initiated to collect the outstanding water and property tax from the citizens.Property tax of Rs 11.41 crore and water tax of Rs 1.27 crore were collected during the drive until Thursday evening, Mahavir Patni, who oversaw the recovery drive, said.Dues over Rs 516 crore were pending. The AMC resolved to recover Rs 450 crore. However, it was far from this target until December. Subsequently, the AMC re-initiated the tax recovery drive on January 12. However, at the end of the drive, the figures have not been impressive. Incidentally, the AMC could not push the major tax payers to clear their dues.According to additional commissioner Shrikrishna Bhalsingh, the AMC has been able to collect Rs 85 crore as property tax. “Due to the payment by some of the major establishments, Zone 5 alone recorded tax collection of Rs 4 crore on Thursday,” he said.Activists say that the AMC administration lack focussed approach. Rahul Ingle from Shahar Parivartan Aghadi said that the method for property assessment and collection is outdated. “Former municipal commissioner Om Prakash Bakoria had planned to conduct property assessment with the help of GIS mapping. The municipal commissioner should have taken help from the corporators to raise awareness about tax collection, but none of that was done,” Ingle said.He added that the condition is so worse that the AMC doesn’t have money to pay for essential services like water.Meanwhile, the AMC administration stated that it plans to go tough on the defaulters. “Those who have not made use of the extended chance to pay their dues will not get more chances. From Friday, we will begin seizing and attaching the properties of defaulters. The properties will be auctioned and the outstanding dues will be recovered,” Bhalsing said.

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