Panchkula MC eyes Rs 3 cr in form of house tax

Chandigarh, June 28

The Panchkula Municipal Corporation has set a target to collect Rs 3 crore as house tax.

This was revealed during a revenue and realisation meeting chaired by Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal today. MC Commissioner Sachin Gupta, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Apoorva Chaudhary and other civic body officials were present on the occasion.

Officials highlighted that the MC had dues running into crores of rupees against property tax defaulters, including prominent government and private buildings with the size of premises exceeding 1,000 yards. A total of Rs 75 crore is to be collected from these defaulters. The Mayor instructed officials to send notices on time to ensure timely collection of taxes.

Regarding mobile towers, the officials informed that the MC had recovered Rs 2.5 crore so far. However, eight companies, namely Fastway, Foxcel, Esto Broadband, RailTel Corporation, Connect Broadband, One Fiber Internet, Base Connect and Speedo Go Fiber, have failed to pay their dues and are yet to shift the cables underground. The Mayor ordered that their connections should be snapped within the next seven days.

One of the key issues discussed during the meeting was the correction of property IDs. A camp is scheduled to be organised on July 1 and 2, where Panchkula residents can rectify any mistakes in their property IDs.

The issue of pending stamp duty payments, which have been outstanding since November 2021, was also discussed at the meeting. The Mayor directed the accounts officer and other officials to expedite the collection of dues, which exceeded Rs 50 crore, to accelerate stalled projects.

Mining activities on the corporation land in Jaloli, Naggal, Alipur, Kot and Dabkori were also pondered over, prompting the Mayor to issue a three-day notice to all mining companies. If these companies failed to provide the minimum share of 10 per cent as stipulated, appropriate actions, including closure, would be taken against them. In the light of reduced collection from Vita booths, hawkers were asked to maximise their collections in the future.