As many as 263 property tax defaulters have applied to the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) seeking payment of their arrears even before the proposed amnesty scheme for property scheme is launched. TOI on Wednesday had reported about TMC's plan to introduce amnesty scheme for property tax defaulters.

The corporation officials are of the opinion that the number of applicants would witness huge spurt once the corporation officially announces the implementation of the amnesty scheme.

"The number of application received from citizens who want to pay their pending dues under the amnesty scheme reflects that people want to clear their pending dues. Hence the corporation should expedite the procedure for introducing amnesty scheme. This will not only be of great relief for the citizens, but will also help TMC in increasing its revenue receipts, especially at a time when corporation is passing through a financial crunch," a senior TMC official said on condition of anonymity.

As per rough estimate of the corporation nearly 2,000 people are in the list of property tax defaulters. The total outstanding amount of property tax recovery is said to be around Rs 170 crore, including the administrative charges for the delay in payment.

Meanwhile corporation is also mulling to introduce tax system based on capital value instead of calculating the property tax on rateable value of the property. The TMC expects to earn nearly Rs 200 crores from the property tax in 2014-15.

While corporation is planning to introduce amnesty scheme, many citizens are complaining about the functioning of the online tax payment system. "If any one clicks on the property tax payment website of the civic body the page goes blank. There have been several such complaints. When the issue was brought to notice of the civic officials they claim the site is functioning smoothly and unwilling to resolve it," said Chirag Joshi.