Employing a new trick to recover money from tax defaulters, the municipal corporation has come out with an "amnesty" scheme.
The civic body will waive the interest, if citizens pay the house-tax dues and pending sewerage and water charges in one go by May 31. "The objective is to make timely collection of dues," said new mayor Amaninder Bajaj. “Money recovered in the amnesty scheme will be invested in the city's development projects.”
In general procedure, house-tax defaulter has to pay 12 to 18% interests over the base amount. The corporation now has dues of Rs 10 crore to recover in form of house tax, out of which Rs 4 crore has to be paid by the different government offices and Rs 6 crore by the general public.
Big tax defaulters were anticipating such as scheme and counting on it to avoid paying the hefty interest. Otherwise, house tax and other dues have to be submitted to the corporation before March 31 but now defaulters have two more months to plan.