Bathinda cluster lags in property tax recovery

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 25

The Punjab Government has applied brakes on developmental works claiming fund crunch while 31 municipal councils under the Bathinda cluster are least bothered about the recovery of house and property tax.

These municipal councils have not been able to attain the recovery target set by them in their budget in 2017-18.

Even some of the councils have recovered only 8 to 10 per cent tax in the entire year so far.

Irked over this, the Local Bodies Department has issued instructions to the executive officers (EO) of municipal councils to complete their target at any cost by March 31, 2018 so that for development works, they don’t have to ask for money from the state government.

The Local Bodies’ deputy director had also held a meeting with the EO of the municipal councils recently. He had directed them to intensify their recovery and submit him weekly report about this.

He had also told them that they could also start sealing drive or issue notices and even if required, take action under the Municipal Act.

Under the Bathinda cluster comes 31 municipal councils of three districts — Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar.

They had kept a property tax recovery budget of Rs 9.77 crore for 2017-18, but no council has been able to achieve its target.

All 31 municipal councils have been able to recover only 48 per cent of the set target as they have succeeded in receiving only Rs 4.70 crore.

Except Mansa and Malout councils, other councils have performed poorly in recovery.

The Malout Municipal Council has set a target of Rs 1 crore recovery whereas it has received Rs 1.02 crore.

While the Mansa municipal council has set a target of Rs 1.30 crore, it has already received Rs 1.24 crore in its kitty.

The Maur municipal council has also recovered 80 per cent of its set target as it has received Rs 20 lakh against the set target of Rs 26 lakh.