Patiala civic body property tax collections cross Rs 13-cr mark

Patiala, February 4

The collections of the property tax wing of the local Municipal Corporation have crossed Rs13 crore in the current financial year. Officials said they were hopeful that they would reach the target collection of Rs18 crore.

This became possible after a number of government departments started submitting the tax amount and the government also offered a one-time settlement scheme for people to submit the pending amount.

The officials said the property and pending house tax collections had crossed Rs13 crore. “We are expecting that we will be able to collect more funds in the coming days and will reach the target of Rs18 crore. We have two months to accomplish the task.”

Raminder Singh, Superintendent, property tax wing, said government departments had started submitting the pending property tax. “We had been in touch with officials of the department for long. The departments later started submitting the pending amount.”

He said the one-time settlement scheme also boosted the collection of property tax wherein people gathered to avail of the benefit offered in it.

The target collection of the MC was reduced from Rs23 crore to Rs18 crore during a special budget meeting of the corporation in March last year after it managed to collect Rs14 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal. The officials said, “Last year, the Covid-induced lockdown had a major impact on the MC’s collections. People lost businesses and failed to submit the property tax. This year, we are expecting the collections will be better and we will be able to achieve the target.”