MC property tax wing goes into overdrive

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 20

To achieve its recovery target, the property tax wing of the Municipal Corporation (MC) initiated a sealing drive recently. The wing sealed six commercial properties on Thursday to press the defaulters in North Zone to deposit tax, after which two of the sealed property owners deposited the money. The property tax wing officials claimed that the sealing drive would continue till March 31.

The civic body has witnessed a shortfall of Rs9 crore in the recovery of property tax during 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20.

During 2019-20, the MC had collected Rs26.34 crore till March 31, but this year, the department has collected only Rs17 crore so far, whereas they had set a target of Rs34 crore till the end of this fiscal (March 31).

However, the Covid-19 outbreak was the major reason behind less recovery, but even after reopening of markets, the recovery rate of property tax could not be revived.

The property tax wing officials have started sealing on the instructions of senior officials. Pardeep Rajput, nodal officer for property tax, said: “We have initiated the sealing and it will continue. The defaulters were asked to pay the tax on time. The Covid-19 outbreak is the major reason for less recovery.”

On Friday, Mayor Karamjit Singh and Commissioner Komal Mittal held a meeting with the heads and deputy heads of all departments to achieve the budget targets set by various departments for the financial year 2020-21.

As property tax is one of the major revenue sources of the MC, Mayor Karmajit Singh Rintu appealed to residents to deposit their dues before March 31 to avoid penalty.

“Not only property tax, the pandemic also hit the recovery of bills and fee of other MC departments. The recovery targets should be achieved for the development of the city,” the Mayor said.