Long queues mark last day of paying property tax

Ludhiana: The last day of availing 10% rebate on property tax, water supply and sewerage dues attracted a large number of tax payers on Tuesday at the suvidha centres.
The tax payers made a beeline at the tax collection windows for making the payment. However, it created difficulties in maintaining social distancing due to the rush till the last moment. At the entrance of the MC office in zone A one employee was deputed for monitoring the temperature of visitors to the office.
On Monday, the second last day too there was extreme rush at the suvidha centres for the tax payment and officials had recovered Rs 2 crore in property tax and Rs 1 crore in water supply and sewerage dues. However, on Tuesday, the tax collection at the counters continued up to 5pm while online payment would be continuing till midnight.
Most of the tax payers had come wearing masks but some had removed these later. It was getting difficult for people to stand in queues and some were unable to gather courage to enter the queues out of fear of coronavirus.
Superintendent of MC Vivek Verma said there was rush on the last two days and they collected maximum revenue from the tax payers. He claimed that for financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21 people had the option to pay property tax online but for previous years people need to pay property tax at the suvidha centres. He claimed that with the rebate period ending, action against defaulters will take place.