MUMBAI: Never before have the people of Maharashtra been more enthusiastic about paying their civic taxes. The industrious people of the state paid in over Rs 85 crore as municipal tax in eight hours on Friday after the state government announced that municipalities would accept Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes. In Solapur, the mayor himself paid three years’ tax dues along with penalty.
"Till 5 pm we recorded Rs 85 crore. We estimate that the figure will cross Rs 120 crore," urban development secretary Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar told New Indian Express.
More than happy to rake it in, municipal offices across the state have been told to stay open till midnight, Dr Mhaiskar added.
Pune topped the municipal corporations in tax collections with a take of Rs 17 crore. Collections in most of the municipal corporations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were in excess of Rs 1 crore.