Residential property tax: Chandigarh MC caught on the wrong foot

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 8

The MC has been caught on the wrong foot as it has been issuing water supply disconnection notices to residential property tax defaulters for two years.

This is despite the fact that there is no provision to snap the water supply connection in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, as extended to the UT. Realising its folly, the MC has now discontinued the practice of sending notices.

“We have stopped sending notices as there is no provision in the Act. We are now studying the Act to finalise what action is to be taken in case of payment default. Attaching property or car can be considered,” an official said.

The MC started issuing such notices at the time of Additional Commissioner Anil Kumar Garg, who was earlier heading the property tax division. As many as 500 notices were issued last year to house property tax defaulters. As many as 300 of them had cleared the dues. Later, the remaining 200 were served notices again and water meter disconnection was on the cards. These 200 households alone owe about Rs50 lakh to the civic body.

The property tax branch of the corporation has collected about Rs43 crore revenue from commercial and residential property tax in the current fiscal. About 1,200 commercial tax defaulters and about 1,000 residential tax defaulters have been issued notices to clear their dues. The MC has recently attached four commercial properties for failing to clear their dues.