The civic body has set a new record by recovering Rs 101 crore in property tax this year against their annual target of Rs 100 crore for the financial year ending March 2023.
Officials claimed that Rs 60 crore was still pending towards defaulters of previous years and a sealing drive would be launched to recover this amount.
Despite it being a holiday, MC Suvidha Centres were open on Saturday but not many tax payers reached to pay the dues due to the cold weather.
Residents can pay tax without penalty till December 31, after which there will be penalty on the tax amount. They will also have to pay 10% penalty on payment of tax from January 1, 2023 till March 31, 2023. After March 2023, residents will have to pay 20% penalty and 18% per annum interest on delayed payment. Suvidha Centres will be open next Saturday, that is December 31 too.
Civic officials have urged people to pay their tax online if they are unable to come to Suvidha centres. Civic authorities have also made it mandatory for staff at Suvidha Centres to bring everything on the digital platform. Although people have the option of paying tax manually, the staff will fill details online. This will facilitate maintenance of digital records of property tax collection.
MC superintendent Abdul Satar said, “We have achieved the annual target three months in advance and now, we will try to recover more defaulter amount, which is approximately Rs 60 crore, out of which Rs 22 crore is outstanding in areas falling under zone D.
We will now move ahead with sealing of properties after December-end.”
This is for the first time since 2013, when property tax was launched that the MC has achieved its target. Usually, officials had to request the local bodies department to revise and reduce the target when they failed to achieve it.
