Shimla MC snaps electricity, water supply to tax defaulters

Sameer Singh

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Shimla, March 10

Toughening its stance against defaulters of property tax, the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has now issued directions for disconnection of electricity and water connections.

Notably, the SMC had been issuing notices to defaulters on numerous occasions in the past, directing them to make payment of outstanding dues, but it barely elicited any positive response. Now, the SMC has resorted to a tough approach to make recovery of outstanding dues.

Rs 7 crore property tax yet to be recovered

• MC officials said all defaulters must deposit property tax soon, failing which more notices will be issued
• The corporation had set a target of recovering Rs 25.43 crore as the outstanding property tax
• The MC has managed to collect approximately Rs 18 crore and around Rs 7 crore is still to be recovered

The SMC has issued directions to disconnect electricity and water supply connections of seven major defaulters. The corporation officials said all defaulters must deposit their property tax as soon as possible failing which more notices for the disconnection of water and electricity supply would be issued soon.

The corporation had set a target of recovering Rs 25.43 crore as the outstanding property tax of which it has managed to collect approximately Rs 18 crore and around Rs 7 crore are still to be recovered.

Talking to The Tribune, Shimla Municipal Corporation Commissioner Ashish Kohli said, “The notice for disconnection of basic utilities has been issued to major defaulters who own commercial properties and have outstanding property tax dues of Rs 1 lakh or more. There are other 150 tax defaulters who have been served notices to make payments of pending dues failing which disconnection orders for basic utilities would be issued against them as well. Issuing notices to major defaulters on a number of occasions did not serve the purpose for a long time so we had to toughen our approach to make recoveries of pending dues.”

Apart from the recovery of property tax, the SMC has also issued notices for recovery of garbage fee which have been mounting with every passing month. The SMC is yet to collect Rs 10 crore as garbage fee from defaulters.

“Not only property tax defaulters but those who have not made payment of garbage fee, especially those with commercial property having bigger amount of outstanding dues, would face disconnection of water and electricity supply soon. For the recovery of taxes, we are focusing on major defaulters for now, but domestic property owners must also clear their dues soon,” added Kohli.

There are around 60,000 commercial and domestic consumers in the city from whom the SMC collects the tax. For recovery of garbage fee pending dues, the SMC had even announced 10 per cent incentive to the garbage collection staff members and supervisors.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Congress government, after assuming power in the state, has issued directions to expedite recovery of outstanding dues so that income can be generated.