Agra Municipal Corporation (AMC) authorities have served notices on 63,000 defaulters, demanding payment of outstanding house tax.
The property owners have been given two weeks’ time to pay their dues. They have been warned that If they fail to do so, action will be initiated against them.
According to the civic body officials, some of the property owners have not paid house tax over the past five years.
The AMC area comprises 100 municipal wards. The total number of registered properties in the city is 3.50 lakh. Out of these, only 1.80 lakh properties are registered with the civic body. Only 45,000 property owners have so far paid their house tax
AMC’s tax department has identified 63,000 property owners who have not paid their house tax for more than one year. Final notices have been issued to them.
According to sources, the civic body administration is all set to conduct a survey of residential and commercial properties to identify the tax evaders as well as the properties registered as residential but used for commercial purposes.
For the current fiscal, the municipal board of councillors had set a target for recovering Rs 75 crore as house tax in the city. This is 15 crore more than the target set last year.
Following the Covid-19 lockdown, no recovery of house tax was made for three months. Now, officials are trying all possible ways to improve the tax collection.
Additional municipal ommissioner Vinod Kumar said, “We are focusing on the recovery of house tax. In the first phase, major defaulters are being targeted. In case they fail to pay, legal action will be initiated against them”.
