Reeling under fund crunch even as its branches are struggling to meet recovery targets, the Ludhiana municipal corporation (MC) has decided to start a sealing drive against property tax and house tax defaulters in the city from next week.
As per MC officials, there are over 86,000 defaulters who have not paid their property tax since the financial year 2014-15, and the tax to be recovered from them runs into about ₹52 crore, excluding the penalty and interest. The civic body is also yet to recover over ₹50 crore (including penalty) in the form of house tax, which was imposed before property tax was introduced by the state government in 2014-15.
MC officials said that this time notices won’t be issued in bulk as it leaves the staff tied up in documentation work. Instead, a limited number of notices will be issued at a time so that the officials can carry out proper follow-ups and take action accordingly.
MC superintendent (property tax) Vivek Verma said, “Strict action will be taken against defaulters from now on and a sealing drive will start next week, as per the directions of MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal. Final notices will be issued to the defaulters and if they still fail to submit the pending dues, their properties will be sealed. Firstly, action will be taken against big defaulters. A list of defaulters and their pending amounts has been issued to the zonal commissioners, who have been directed to push their staff to meet the recovery targets.”
{{/usCountry}}MC superintendent (property tax) Vivek Verma said, “Strict action will be taken against defaulters from now on and a sealing drive will start next week, as per the directions of MC commissioner Pardeep Sabharwal. Final notices will be issued to the defaulters and if they still fail to submit the pending dues, their properties will be sealed. Firstly, action will be taken against big defaulters. A list of defaulters and their pending amounts has been issued to the zonal commissioners, who have been directed to push their staff to meet the recovery targets.”
{{/usCountry}}As per information, there are around 20,000 defaulters each in Zone A, B and C areas, while Zone D has around 26,000 defaulters.
Recovery target not likely to be met this year
Against the annual recovery target of ₹130 crore, the property tax wing has only recovered ₹55 crore so far, which is around ₹8 crore less than what it recovered by this time in 2019.
Officials revealed that among the big defaulters this year are several malls and hotels that have not paid the tax citing the pandemic. The amount to be recovered from them comes to around ₹7 crore.
This year, the MC has also increased the property tax for residential rental properties, including the paying guest accommodations, hostels, rental accommodations etc. The owners will now have to pay 7.5% of the annual rent received as tax. Earlier, owners had to pay ₹5 per yard for the property annually.
MC officials state they won’t be able the meet the recovery this year too, as the pandemic has already induced a financial crisis in the market.