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Ludhiana | September 30 last date to get rebate, 81K property owners to pay tax
Ludhiana MC superintendent Vivek Verma said messages were also being floated on social media networks to apprise residents about the rebate. Residents could also pay the property tax online at mcludhiana.gov.in
Even as September 30 is the last day to avail 10 per cent rebate on submission of property tax, over 81,000 property owners in the city are yet to pay the dues for the current year 2022-23. As many as 430 owners submitted the tax on Saturday.
To facilitate the process for residents, the municipal corporation (MC) has decided to keep the suvidha kendras open on Saturday too till September 30.
The civic body officials said there are over 2.3 lakh taxable properties in the city and over 81,000 property owners are yet to pay property tax for the current year.
One of the MC officials said the fund-starved MC was also organising camps in different parts of the city to enable residents to submit the tax in their respective area only and increase its revenue collection.
MC superintendent Vivek Verma said messages were also being floated on social media networks to apprise residents about the rebate. Residents could also pay the tax online at mcludhiana.gov.in.
Property tax budget target increased to 130 crore
The local bodies department has increased the annual recovery target of property tax from ₹100 crore to ₹130 crore. While the target for operations and maintenance cell (water-sewer charges) has been reduced from ₹90 crore to ₹60 crore, even as the MC is facing acute shortage of funds and needs to increase recovery of dues from residents.
As per the MC officials, the General House of MC had also approved ₹130 crore as the annual recovery target for property tax wing, but the state government had earlier reduced it to ₹100 crore. Recently, the department has again increased the target to ₹130 crore.
Further speaking about the target of operations and maintenance cell, the officials said the previous government might had reduced the target and waived off pending water-sewer user charges of the defaulters before assembly elections, which is expected to hit the recovery drive of the MC.
MC installs digital android standees at suvidha kendras
The standees have been installed at Zone-A and D offices of the MC and the civic body is working to install the same at Zone-B and C offices too.
The officials said through these standees, the MC would initially spread awareness among visitors regarding the process and documents required to submit tax, change ownership of property etc.
In the coming time, they will upgrade the system after which residents will be able to submit their property tax returns online through these machines installed at suvidha kendras only.
MC superintendent Vivek Verma said MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal has directed to encourage digitalisation at suvidha kendras, following which the standees have been installed. The authorities were also working to introduce a digital token system at MC suvidha kendras wherein screens would be installed and online tokens would be given to visitors with an aim to avoid long queues, he said.