It may sound strange, but 67 government departments have not paid property tax for last many years, despite the tax charged to these departments being very less as compared to private properties. Facing a severe financial crisis, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is now planning to take action against all the departments.

According to the data available with NMC's property tax department, the office of superintendent of police (CID, Crime) situated in Civil Lines has the highest arrears at Rs 72.83 lakh. The annual property tax of the department comes to only Rs 9.10 lakh, and tax has not been paid for over eight years.

Similarly, the other departments owing property tax include zilla parishad, office of commissioner of police, sales tax department, public works department, Government ITI, district industrial centre, labour court etc.

In case of private properties, NMC attaches the property in case of non-payment of property tax. It will be interesting to see whether any action is taken against government departments owing property tax in crores. Even revaluation of government buildings is pending for last many years, which may lead to an increase in property tax.