E-Paper
‘Red notices’ to over 7K house tax defaulters in U.P.’s Prayagraj
Each of them owes over ₹50,000 to the civic body and has failed to clear dues despite repeated appeals
Taking strict action against the major defaulters who have not paid their house tax for long, the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation (PMC) has started issuing ‘red notices’ (final warning notice) to 7,303 defaulters, each of whom owes over ₹50,000 as house tax to the civic body and has failed to do so despite repeated appeals.
Of them, 2,433 have an outstanding payment of more than ₹1 lakh, say PMC officials aware of the matter. If these defaulters fail to deposit the dues within a given time, action will be initiated to attach and seal their buildings, they say. There are a total of 2.32 lakh buildings within the municipal corporation (barring the recently extended areas) in the Sangam city.
Chief tax assessment officer, PMC, PK Dwivedi said, “The municipal corporation had collected house tax of ₹89.93 crore from a total of 1.48 lakh building owners in the last financial year. In the current fiscal till November 30, around 1,11, 827 house owners have deposited house tax of ₹53.76 crore.”
In the last financial year (till November 30), ₹43.22 crore was recovered from 1,14,644 building owners against house tax, he added. “However, more than 1.25 lakh people have not yet deposited their house tax. Of them, over 1 lakh building owners have not deposited house tax for the past several years against whom the PMC is going to take strict action,” said Dwivedi.
He said there are a total of 171 government buildings in the city, on which an amount of ₹8.47 crore is due. However, 80% of the expenditure is for the current financial year only. In this financial year, ₹5.82 crore has been received as house tax from 69 government buildings.
Dwivedi also clarified that no compound interest is charged on house tax. “Simple interest is charged at the rate of 1% every month. It is a misconception that interest is also charged on interest,” he made plain.
