Owners of 9,024 properties never paid tax: Ludhiana MC survey

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 1

The Municipal Corporation (MC) has conducted a survey to find out property tax defaulters in seven out of total 37 blocks of the city. A total of 32,299 properties were checked in seven blocks during the survey.

As per the initial information collected by the civic body team, it came to light that the property tax of 9,024 properties in seven blocks was never paid by the owners or occupiers concerned till date since the property tax was imposed in 2013-14. It has also come to light that the number of property tax returns are decreasing every year.

Moreover, the survey figures revealed that the owners or occupiers of 1,620 properties paid less tax or evaded tax by filing the property tax return under the wrong category. A number of buildings are being used for commercial purpose but the owners or occupiers paid tax under the residential category instead of the commercial category.

The Additional Commissioner, MC, Rishipal Singh, said the survey was being conducted by his team. It would be conducted in other blocks too to identify defaulters. The survey information would be shared with the property tax branch of the MC for further action. A Punjab Remote Sensing Centre data about properties was used for the survey to find out the property tax defaulters.

Tax of 79,000 properties yet to be paid for 2021-22

The MC had aimed to collect Rs 110 crore property tax during 2021-22 but it failed to achieve the target. The Superintendent, MC, Vivek Verma said they had already collected Rs 91.10 crore tax while online transactions of around Rs 90 lakh were under process for the financial year 2021-22. It is expected that the MC would collect around Rs 92 crore property tax during 2021-22, he said.

Besides, the MC was expecting to collect tax from around 2.25 lakh properties during 2021-22 but it could collect from only around 1.46 lakh properties. The tax of around 79,000 properties for 2021-22 is yet to be recovered by the MC. Now, the defaulters would have to pay property tax with a 20 per cent penalty and 18 per cent interest. The MC has already started sending notices to private hospitals and nursing homes for property tax scrutiny.

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