The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on Monday sealed 285 properties across the city. The civic body has now begun targeting properties that have defaulted amounts less than Rs 25k also.
AMC officials said that the finance department, which is struggling hard to achieve the targets set in the budget estimates has now decided to target small property defaulters. The officials said that till mid-February the AMC was only targeting establishments that had defaulted over Rs 1 lakh. But on Monday, most of the defaulters of the the 285 properties sealed had less than Rs 50,000 dues outstanding.
AMC officials said 177 of these 285 properties were from the areas of Thaltej, Gota, Bodakdev, Ghatlodia Shilaj Road and SG Highway among others. In Ganesh Meridian a tenant had defaulted Rs 10.10 lakh. The tenant was the highest defaulter on Monday. The officials said that they were targeting the western part of the city as these areas were high-end societies.
The drastic step was taken after a majority of the property units had failed to pay taxes ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh. In Ganesh Meridian more than 40 properties were sealed by the AMC.
The officials said that they are inspecting the properties again after sealing, as several property owners had tampered with the seals. The corporation has decided to file police complaints against those property owners who tampered with the seals and impose 10% administrative charges on them.
AMC officials said that to take action against property tax defaulters, the AMC has gone on a major drive and has sealed around 600 properties so far this financial year.
