Ludhiana Civic officials have identified 30,000 property owners who did not pay their property tax for the previous fiscal year. Now, these property owners will get notices asking them to clear their dues. Officials have already started serving notices in a few areas. In the next two months, officials will try to recover pending amount from defaulters. More than 3.55 lakh returns were filed last year.
Meanwhile, recoveries in the current year are proceeding smoothly as people get a chance to avail 10% rebate on the total amount. The process of distributing notices has started. After the first notice, officials had to wait for one month before serving the sealing notice to defaulters. Civic officials have generated Rs 125 crore from property tax in the previous financial year against a target of Rs 100 crore. Now, they have set a target of Rs 125 crore.
Sources said MC elections are due this year so whenever elections are announced, staff will be deputed on election duty. They also said that ruling party leaders will not allow them to serve notices at the time of elections, which will affect recovery.
Zonal commissioner Jasdev Sekhon said, “The process has started of recovery of dues has started. We will give one month for payment and if people do not pay we will seal properties. Meanwhile, sealing activity for previous years will continue like before.”
Those who still failed to pay tax will have to pay huge tax amount as there will be 20% penalty and 18% annual interest on payment of tax.