10% rebate on property tax till Sept 30

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 19

The debt-ridden Municipal Corporation of Bathinda (MCB) is all set to intensify its property tax recovery in the city as in the 2018-19 financial year, the civic body has able to collect only Rs 3.66 crore tax till date against the set target of Rs 11.50 crore.

To recover the tax, the MCB has announced a benefit to the people by giving 10 per cent rebate to the residents who will pay their tax by September 30. From October 1, people have to give 20 per cent penalty along with 18 per cent interest on the outstanding amount.

The Municipal Commissioner held a meeting with MCB officials in which he has directed the latter to start sealing properties of defaulters who fail to pay their outstanding tax by September 30.

The MCB had issued around 3,500 notices to the defaulters who had not paid the property tax of last year and earlier.

There are around 41,000 commercial units and residential buildings for which property tax has to be paid to the MCB. Of these, tax for only 12,987 units has been paid so far.

The Local Bodies Department has, on various occasions, offered special concession on paying tax on time still 40 per cent of the people don’t care to pay it.

The main reason behind the MCB starting the drive is that to get the funds under the Amrut scheme, it is mandatory for the corporation to have tax recovery of up to 90 per cent.

It is not clear that how much money the MCB will get from the Central Government under this scheme, but the civic body has made a master plan to get funds to carry out development works.

The MCB is not getting funds from the state government, which it would get under the SAD-BJP government. The Congress government has sanctioned Rs 16 crore to the Bathinda Improvement Trust to conduct development works.

The MCB doesn’t have funds for development works as whatever it gets in its kitty in a month it has to pay salaries to its employees, which come to around Rs 6 crore.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath appealed to the city residents to pay their property tax by September 30 and get the benefit of 10 per cent rebate.

He said they were not getting any fund from the state government due to which recovering outstanding taxes was very important.