March closing unlikely to see targets achieved by Jalandhar MC wings

Tribune News Service

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, February 25

With just about a month left for the financial year 2023-24, it seems unlikely that the targets to be achieved by various departments of the Municipal Corporation may be met by March 31.

As per information, the Water Supply Department has recovered a bill amount worth Rs 12 crore, while the target is Rs 18 crore. The property tax wing of the MC has recovered Rs 41 crore so far, while the target is Rs 45 crore for the financial year.

The Municipal Corporation (MC) Zonal Commissioner held a meeting with officials of the Water Supply Department last month and ordered them to ensure that they meet the target of recovering Rs 18 crore in the current financial year. The officials had also been asked to complete the process of meter reading at the earliest so that the recovery could be done fast.

“We will check illegal connections and then act accordingly,” an official had said.

However, officials were expecting that the recovery would increase in the coming days.

The same is the case with the property tax wing. Not much headway has been made in the recovery. This is so despite the ‘One-Time Settlement’ scheme getting implemented in September last year to provide a major relief to defaulters who are otherwise supposed to pay 20 per cent penalty and 18 per cent interest on the outstanding principal amount of all previous fiscal years.

There are around 1.65 lakh taxable properties in the city, including residential and commercial ones.

Under the procedure for taking action against defaulters, inspectors of the property tax wing visit different areas to recover the tax. Defaulters who have not paid the tax are served a notice under Section 112 of the Municipal Corporation Act. They have to file a reply within three days, failing which another notice of sealing the property is served under Section 138 of the Act.

In figures

As per information, the Water Supply Department has recovered a bill amount worth Rs 12 crore, while the target is Rs 18 crore. The property tax wing of the MC has recovered Rs 41 crore so far, while the target is Rs 45 crore for the financial year.

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