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Patiala MC lagging behind in meeting property tax collection target
The civic body has managed to collect only ₹12 crore against the target of ₹26 crore in this financial year; even last year, it had collected ₹14 crore against the target of ₹20 crore
Even as the Patiala municipal corporation (MC) has started tightening its noose on property tax defaulters, it is lagging behind in meeting the set tax collection target for the ongoing financial year.
The property tax branch remains a “low performer”. So far, it has managed to collect only ₹12 crore against the set target of ₹26 crore in this financial year. Even last year, the civic body had collected taxes worth ₹14 crore against the set target of ₹20.05 crore.
Taking serious note of the property tax defaulters, the MC has already initiated sealing process of commercial establishments. As many as 15 buildings were sealed in the past one week over non-payment of property taxes.
The civic body has already issued notices to seal units of at least 12,000 defaulters, giving them stringent warnings of punitive action in case they failed to respond to the notices.
As per sources, even the government departments including irrigation department, jails, public works department and sports are in the list of defaulters.
MC commissioner Poonamdeep Kaur said that they have divided the defaulters into different pockets so that action can be taken in a systematic manner.
“Not only the commercial units, we are also going to send notices to government organisations that are on the defaulters’ list for not clearing their pending dues of property taxes,” Kaur said.
She added that presently, the municipal corporation is focusing on units that have not paid a single instalment of property tax and those who failed to respond to the MC’s notices.
With the civic body completing its GIS software survey last year, it has added at least 1.46 commercial and residential establishments to its data. The municipal corporation has added 50,000 new units following the survey. Earlier the database had only 96,000 units under its purview.
Property tax branch superintendent Raminderpal Singh said the MC has issued notices to defaulters under Section 138 of the Municipal Corporation Act, which carries the provision of attaching movable and immovable property of defaulters, and the same can be auctioned as per rules.
“We are putting every effort to recover the pending arrears. Defaulters have been given an ultimatum for settling the arrears so as to avoid the sealing formalities,” he said.
Earlier, notices were issued to the defaulters under Section 137 of the Municipal Corporation Act, which states that “in case of non-payment of the bill within the stipulated period, action will be initiated against the defaulters.”
