Property tax: Police department, DC office owe Rs 22 crore to civic body in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: With top government departments amogn others defaulting on property tax, the officials of Ludhiana municipal coporation has started issuing fresh notices or writing letters to the heads of the departments.
The MC has recently written a letter to the police commissioner to clear the outstanding property tax dues. Similarly, a letter has been written to the deputy commissioner to clear the tax for DC office and multi-level parking lot.
MC commissioner Shena Aggarwal has issued letters for the recovery of dues. While the police department owes Rs 20.98 crore to the MC, the DC office has to claar Rs 1.25 crore in dues. In a wrong assessment case, a notice has been issued to a reputed private hospital for recovery of Rs 8.65 crore. During a hearing on Wednesday, the hospital management took the plea that they come under charitable hospital category, so they are under exemption. However, officials clarified that their exemption was cancelled in 2014-15 by the government. The hospital is given time till April 6 for clearing the tax. The hospital is to clear dues for its 12 buildings.
The MC authorities have made it clear that in case tax is not be paid before March 31, then the amount will increase as 18% interest and 20% penalty will be imposed on it.
MC sources said a letter has been written to the police commissioner to clear property tax dues. He said the tax is pending for police station buildings, including the police commissioner’s office in the mini secretariat.
In 2017 too, the MC had served notices to various police stations for the tax. Even at that time, the MC and police had come to loggerheads as police officials too had decided to charge MC while providing force for demolition drives. But when the notices were not followed up, the matter was hushed up.
The police department is not the only government department which has not paid taxes. Earlier, the Ludhiana Improvement Trust and Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (Glada) too had refused to clear tax dues. The civic officials claimed that though LIT and Glada had enquired about the tax amount, when it came to clear the tax both the departments took the plea that they have allocated funds for development works in the past several times so MC should adjust the tax from that loan amount. The MC in the past had served notices to 52 such government departments, but except a few not many paid the tax. So, other departments too might such letters and notices in the coming days, sources added.
Meanwhile, civic officials are catching hold of defaulters in the entire city and anybody who has not cleared dues since 2013-14 is on the MC radar. A few buildings were also sealed in the past.