Thane Municiple Corporation’s property tax dept goofs-up again, prints bills with wrong names

THANE: A lapse on the part of the property tax department has left thousands of tax payers a harried lot as they received their bills with wrong names. A week ago, too, 85,000 bills were returned to the department as the address on them was not updated. This led to a drop in collections for the administration in the new fiscal.

Senior officials from the property tax department accepted that there was a lapse on their part. “An old database was erroneously sent for printing with the new bills. This led to the problem. We have taken corrective steps to fix the problem. Residents can approach the nearest ward office and get a fresh print out of their tax bill and make the payments,” Omprakash Divte, deputy municipal commissioner, in charge of the property tax department, said.

However, activists have raised questions on the smart makeover initiative that was undertaken by the administration recently. Many tax payers are facing problems because of a goof-up by the tax department.

A couple from Ghodbunder Road Lata Nair and Shreedharan had purchased their flat in June 2014 and got their name transferred by November the same year. However, this year they were shocked to see that the bill they had received was in the name of their previous owner. Their trips to the TMC were also futile.

‘‘We received the 2015-16 tax bills in our names. The supplementary bill in March 2016 was also dispatched in our name. So, we were shocked to name of the previous owner this time in the bill,’’ said Shreedharan.

The couple had writted a number of emails to the administration but they have still not received any acknowledgment for it.