MC collects Rs 15-cr property tax, three days still to go

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 28

With the financial year nearing its end, the officials of the property tax wing are on toes to achieve their target.

They have collected Rs 15.70 crore till date and expecting that they will recover Rs 1 crore more in the next three days.

The department of local bodies had fixed target of Rs 35 crore for the property tax wing.

The government had given 10 per cent rebate till September 30 to the taxpayers. The MC accepted property tax till December 31 without any penalty.

From January 1 to March 31, residents have been paying tax with 20 per cent penalty.

The officials of MC wing had said that the defaulters had to pay the tax along with 18 per cent interest per annum.

Last year, the property tax wing had collected Rs 18.95 crore against a target of Rs 28 crore.

The officials claimed that their recovery had been suffering as employees were busy with the delimitation duty.

Earlier, the MC used to open all windows at the zonal offices. But due to scarcity of employees, the MC has been accepting payment of tax only at zone 6, zone 1 and head office.

Poor response to online tax payment

The MC has been making efforts to encourage the public to pay the property tax through their website.

But the website of the MC is not popular among residents and as a result, the property tax wing got lukewarm response.

The property tax wing made an animated tutorial to educate the residents on paying the tax online.

The officials urged the residents to watch the video on Youtube before paying the tax online.