MC staff to hit the roads to recover dues

Ludhiana: Instead of waiting for defaulters to come and pay their property tax and other dues, teams of MC officials will move out in the field in the last month of the current financial year (March). For recovery of pending property tax, each superintendent level officer will check five buildings in one day and certify whether the owners of those buildings had paid their taxes or not. Similarly, for the recovery of pending water supply and sewerage dues, a team of 17 officials has been deputed in each zone. The officials claimed they are now left with 35 days only, and they cannot rely only on issuing notices.
The idea is to recover maximum pending dues. But in case there is an election code of conduct due to parliament elections, then officials will be deputed on various poll duties that will affect their drive. As per MC officials, MC has recovered Rs61 crore from property tax, while from water supply and dues, Rs42 crore has been collected. However, the target is around Rs100 crore for both the branches. The civic body is sending notices in bulk to every single property owner, along with messages on their mobile numbers. But this is not enough.

One of the officials claimed they would go out in the field and check buildings on the spot just to ensure whether the property owner has paid the tax or not. He said if any person had not paid the tax, they would recover the amount on the spot, and in case tax is paid, they will check whether it has been paid correctly. He claimed they had found some properties where tax evasion had come to light.

Meanwhile, MC superintendent Vivek Verma said: “All of us will remain in the field for scrutiny of buildings, and the aim will be to focus on big defaulters. We will have to recover as many pending dues as possible.” He said they had also sent a reminder to the local bodies department for clearing the decision of imposing 7.5% tax rate on PGs and hostels. In order to recover pending water supply and sewerage dues, civic officials will now knock at the doors of defaulters while carrying their swipe machines along with them.

Officials have recovered only Rs42 crore from water supply and sewerage dues, while Rs58 crore is yet to be recovered.

BOX

NOTICES TO GOVT BLDGS

Civic officials are going to serve notices to government accommodations from where they have not received taxes so far. The government accommodations are situated on Mall Road (near Fountain Chowk), near Old Court Chowk, and IT Colony in Tagore Nagar.