MCD plans to knock on doors of house tax defaulters

If you haven't been paying your house tax on time, expect a Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) tax inspector at your doorstep soon. The only way out for the civic agency, which wants to step up tax collection - it has managed to earn Rs 1002 crore this year - is to go after tax defaulters.

If you haven't been paying your house tax on time, expect a Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) tax inspector at your doorstep soon. The only way out for the civic agency, which wants to step up tax collection - it has managed to earn Rs 1002 crore this year - is to go after tax defaulters.

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According to MCD officials, owners of more than 8 lakh properties have paid their taxes, but there are at least 13 lakh more property owners in the city who still haven't cleared their dues.

The MCD is now planning to put on more pressure on defaulters by launching a door-to-door campaign.

"We will also put up details of the defaulters online and publish their names in major newspapers," said MCD's property tax committee chairman Ved Gupta, who on Tuesday will convene a meeting to discuss ways to recover pending dues.

Issues such as the status of tax collection in the city, number of new properties added in the tax net and the number of bounced cheques will also be taken up in the meeting.

The civic body has asked deputy commissioners of all the 12 zones, officials of the assessor and collector departments and about 250 tax inspectors to join the meet.

"We want to discuss ways to make property tax payments easier so that more people pay up," he said.

They will also discuss the issue of giving rebates to prompt tax payers.

In a proposal tabled with the committee, the civic body has proposed to give a 70% rebate on the interest levied on arrears so that property owners pay up only 30% of the interest.