Rs 4.5 cr property tax scam in Panipat MC

A scam of Rs 4.5 crore in the property tax branch of the Panipat Municipal Corporation has come to light. The scam was unearthed after the Joint Commissioner noticed his official ID allegedly being wrongly used by his personal assistant (PA) in correction of property IDs, property tax and issuance of no-dues certificate (NDC).

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Following reports of an inquiry, the services of the personnel assistant of the Joint Commissioner were terminated. The MC also wrote to the police to register a criminal case and to probe the matter in detail.

The Yashi Company had conducted the survey of properties and the data was uploaded on the portal in October 2022. But discrepancies were found in over 70,000 properties in the data.

Then, the MC launched several campaigns to correct the property IDs. After that, the property IDs were made mandatory for the registration of property. If anyone wanted to purchase property, the no-dues certificate (NDC) from the MC was mandatory and the property should be in an approved area.

Sources said the property ID correction, wrong tax bill correction, issuing NDC and other property tax-related works were with Joint Commissioner Sanjay Kumar.

But his personnel assistant (PA), a woman employee under Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN), reportedly in connivance with some other employees and agents active in the Municipal Corporation and Tehsil office reportedly started clearing files by using the official ID of the Joint Commissioner without official approval and physical verification. The unauthorised zeroing of property tax outstanding against the properties led to a loss of over Rs 4.5 crore to the Panipat MC, sources said.

As the matter came to light, Sanjay Kumar filed a complaint with the MC Commissioner following which the Commissioner ordered a detailed inquiry into the matter and a special committee comprising Additional Commissioner Vivek Chaudhary, Mani Tyagi, Joint Commissioner and expert members was formed.

It was revealed in the inquiry that around 400 files were cleared by the PA during her tenure. Of these, 325 files were cleared wrongly and property tax of Rs 4.5 crore was made zero, a senior official said. Also, fake property IDs were created of properties in unapproved areas by linking those with some property in approved area and NDC was issued to register the property.

Even in the register, the PA and her associates entered the wrongly passed files, the sources said.

Dr Pankaj Yadav, Commissioner, MC, said that the PA misused the official ID of Joint Commissioner Sanjay Kumar and cleared the files without any official approval in connivance with some agents and officials.

She was suspended when the matter came to light and now, her services have been terminated, the Commissioner said. The property tax which was wrongly zeroed has been reverted and now, tax is outstanding against those properties. Now, notices would be served to all these property owners, he said. “It is a nexus between some officials and agents active in the MC and Tehsil office. To break this nexus, we have written to the police to lodge a case and to probe the matter,” the Commissioner said.