DELIBERATE UNDERASSESSMENT of seven marriage gardens deprived the Bhopal Municipal Corporation a whopping Rs 1 crore as property tax, according to a probe.
The probe, say officials, not only reveals nexus of the BMC personnel with big property owners but also indicates potential loss worth crore to the corporation.
The assessment of the seven marriage gardens revealed that the BMC has been losing an amount of Rs 94.90 lakh for the past many years due to underassessment of the properties.
The inquiry was carried out regarding the assessment of the marriage gardens at Bairagarh include Lion City, Shalimar Nursery, Sun City, Moonlight City, Sundar Van, Gulshan Garden and Green City marriage garden.
It was assessed that the BMC incurred a loss of Rs 29.66 lakh only from Sundar Van Nursery due to underassessment.
The loss was Rs 8.42 lakh in case of Lion City marriage garden, Rs 13.64 lakh in case of Shalimar Nursery, Rs 8.87 lakh in case of Sun City marriage garden, Rs 7.93 lakh in case of Moonlight City marriage garden, 21.68 lakh in case of Gulshan Garden and Rs 4.68 lakh in case of Green City marriage garden.
The BMC administration has also served notice to the Hotel Mark on Hoshangabad road. Underassessment of property tax worth Rs nine lakh was detected in this case.
{{/usCountry}}The BMC administration has also served notice to the Hotel Mark on Hoshangabad road. Underassessment of property tax worth Rs nine lakh was detected in this case.
{{/usCountry}}BMC additional commissioner Vaid Prakash said that the show-cause notices were served to the zonal officer of zone-1 and ward in-charge of ward-4 for the underassessment. Disciplinary action would be taken against these
officials and employees, he added.
According to an estimate, the property tax could be doubled in the City if assessed properly. If the BMC officials involved in property tax assessment are to be believed, the property tax collection could go up to Rs 45 crore. It is learnt that the BMC administration is going to investigate the property tax accounts in other wards to know about the under-assessed properties.