NMMC's property department incharge booked by ACB

A senior official of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and two others have been booked by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly tampering with the computer generated tax system and causing revenue losses to the tune of Rs 681.65 crore to the civic body, officials said.
An offence has been registered with NRI Police Station in Navi Mumbai against Chief Tax Assessor and Collector Prakash Kulkarni, accountant Dinesh Gawari and computer operator Kishore Dhole, said ACB officials.
The anti-corruption bureau had conducted an open inquiry against Kulkarni and the two officials after municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe detected irregularities in tax collection from property holders in Navi Mumbai civic body area, said the ACB official.

Kulkarni and his two aides allegedly tampered with the computerised tax system in such a manner that it did not print the bills of 3,301 under-construction properties and made sure that names of the property holders did not appear in the defaulter list, the official added.
They also allegedly issued duplicate property bills and collected tax of crores of rupees, also changed tax valuation of 18 prime properties in Navi Mumbai by tampering computer system, which were forwarded from ward offices, they said.
Offence has been registered against the three officials under relevant sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

"After an open inquiry ACB lodged complaint against accused persons for cheating, further investigation is on," Vivek Phansalkar, Additional Director General of ACB told PTI.
"During inquiry it was revealed that accused persons did not only make proper valuation of taxable properties and deliberately did not levy tax on Land Under Construction (LUC) which caused losses to the civic body." he added. PTI
Senior officials from the Thane ACB unit confirmed that searches were being conducted at various locations including the residences of the accused trio.