According to MC officials, the district police are to deposit Rs 80 lakh while the district courts complex had a pending property tax of Rs 70 lakh.
As the last date for depositing the property tax expired on September 30, as many as eight government departments, including the district police, failed to deposit the property tax. The Municipal Corporation held a special camp for depositing the tax on Sunday.
According to MC officials, the district police are to deposit Rs 80 lakh while the district courts complex had a pending property tax of Rs 70 lakh. The other defaulter departments include water supply department (Rs 2 lakh), agriculture department (Rs 15 lakh), Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (Rs 25 lakh), forest department (Rs 4 lakh), excise department (Rs 2 lakh) and the district administrative complex (Rs 15 lakh). The total amount of property tax of the government departments is around Rs 2 crore.
“We issued the notices to all these departments but the tax was not deposited. Now we shall include the penalty in the pending property tax of these departments,” an MC official told Chandigarh Newsline.
The officer said that in the last six months (from March to September), the MC collected Rs 13 crore from property tax. In the month of September alone, MC collected Rs 7 crore property tax.
“On Sunday, the last day of depositing the tax, the MC collected Rs 1.34 crore property tax. We have a target of collecting Rs 20 crore property tax. We are well short of the target but we are hopeful that we shall achieve our target,” the officer posted in property tax collection branch told Chandigarh Newsline.
The government departments have not been paying the property tax for the last three years but the MC failed to take any action. In the case of private properties, the MC seals the properties in case the owners fail to deposit the property tax.