Panchkula Municipal Corporation fails to meet property tax collection target

Tribune News Service

Amit Bathla

Panchkula, April 1

Once again, the local MC has failed to achieve its annual property tax collection target. The MC managed to collect around Rs 11 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal against the target of Rs 25 crore. The collection is even less than 50 per cent of the target.

Interestingly, the MC collected Rs2.09 crore as property tax in March only after the Haryana Government had in January decided to waive interest on pending property tax if the owners cleared the dues by March 31.

For the past several years, the MC has not been able to make the expecting earnings, including property tax collection, which is a main source of revenue. The amount collected through property tax is used for development works. In simple terms, low property tax collection doesn’t allow the civic body to initiate planned development projects.

Property tax defaulters, which include many government establishments, owe Rs50 crore to the corporation.

“In the above Rs5-lakh category, a sum of around Rs17.5 crore is to be recovered from 17 establishments. Top defaulters include hotels, banks, government institutions, schools and petrol pumps,” said Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, adding that they had already issue recovery notices to the defaulters. “If they fail to pay up, we will initiate action against them,” he said.

For the 2022-23 fiscal, the MC is once again hoping to earn Rs25 crore from property tax. To boost its collection, it is organising property tax camps in societies to provide the payment service to taxpayers on the doorstep. Another such event is scheduled for tomorrow at a group housing society in the Mansa Devi Complex, Sector 5.

In a General House meeting last year, the MC had also passed a resolution to tighten its noose around those defaulting on property tax payments. In this regard, the MC had sealed two commercial properties owned by the Ansal Group in Sector 5 for failing to clear dues.

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