Tax payment through cheques? No more!

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 2

After several cheques were dishonored, the Municipal Corporation has decided not to accept payment of property tax through cheques.

However, some months ago, MC Commissioner Komal Mittal had already instructed zonal superintendents not to accept payment of tax through cheques. But under pressure of recovering tax, superintendents accepted cheques of several tax payers till March 31. According to information, cheques amounting to Rs24.5 lakh were again dishonored. Earlier, around 150 cheques were dishonored last year.

Now, the MC has decided to curb the practice and restrict tax payment through cheques.

MC secretary Sushant Bhatia said: “As per the directions of the MC Commissioner, the employees at citizen facilitation centre (CFC) have been asked not to accept any payment of tax through cheques. In some special cases, the superintendents were asked to get permission from the commissioner. There are several other modes of payments. The online payment is easy and hassle-free. We are motivating taxpayers to adopt the online payment mode to avoid any inconvenience.”

The nodal officer for property tax issued 16 notices to those property owners, whose cheques were dishonoured on Friday. The MC has asked property owners to respond to the notice within three working days otherwise further action would be taken.