The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) plan of recovering outstanding dues to the tune of Rs 5 crore from 907 shop owners in the city's Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) complex from Wednesday is not likely to yield satisfactory results.

The shop owners, who are crying foul play in the tax assessment and demanding a revision in it, said that they will not pay the taxes in the current format. The AMC had been charging property tax based on net rateable value (NRV) applicable in 2006. "In fact, the tax should be as per the NRV of 1998, when we took over the shops from the APMC," said Sanjay Pahade, one of the shop owners in the APMC complex.

The NRV of 1998 had registered a growth of 2.5 to 3 times by 2006.

Tax collection in-charge in the AMC Shivaji Zanzan stuck to his guns, stating that the AMC had already served notices to the occupants. "There is no confusion in tax calculation. The owners have to pay the tax as per the 2006 NRV," Zanzan told TOI.

Zanzan said that the civic body would launch a special drive to recover the dues. "We are looking forward to mop up most of the outstanding dues over the following days," he said.

After constructing the shops in 1998, the APMC had handed over it to the owners. The APMC was supposed to collect the tax from the occupants and pay it to the civic body, but there was dispute over this process. In 2006-07, it was decided that the shop owners will directly pay the tax to the AMC.

Pahade said that initially there was no clarity on the matter and thus shop owners could not fulfill their tax liability. "Now, shop owners are ready to pay the tax, but as per the old rates," he said.

Another factor that may negatively affect the AMC's tax collection drive is the number of closed shops in the complex. Nearly 70 per cent of the shops are closed in the premises for many years now.