New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Tuesday sealed five more shops in Connaught Place for property tax default. Two were desealed later.
With this action, the total number of shops that NDMC sealed in CP reached 20 from last week onwards, although 10 shops have been desealed after their occupants made interim payments or because their matter is now pending in court.
An NDMC official said that on Tuesday five shops were sealed but two were desealed later. In one case, a payment was made. In another, a court order was given. “There is around Rs 2,500 crore pending against the top 100 defaulters, and we need to recover around Rs 1,950 crore. To help the traders, we have given the option of payment in instalments,” the official said.
Atul Bhargava, president of New Delhi Traders Association (NDTA), said that no public representative came forward to help them. “The council is raising arbitrary bills running into crores and making it difficult for traders to pay them. Also, we are against the calculation of tax based on comparable rent and the rateable value of properties. The comparable rent is much higher,” he said.
Some traders said the council was not offering a rebate or sending notices to landlords. “There have been instances where shops belonging to the landlord remained untouched, while those taken by the tenants were sealed because they were not aware of the development…. At present, nobody from the council is making any effort to resolve the problem,” Bhargava said.
Traders said the majority of shops are on rent in CP and when the tenant is paying the rent to the owner regularly, the option for attaching rent for payment of pending dues should be adopted.
NDMC vice-chairman Satish Upadhyay said that the sealing drive will continue as the traders were served notices and warrants earlier. When no reply came from the other side, action was taken. “There are crores of rupees pending against the defaulters and we need to recover these…. We can’t withdraw the sealing exercise,” he said.
Chamber of Trade Industry (CTI) has called a joint meeting of all traders’ associations on Friday. “In CP, any property is assessed according to the property which has the highest rent, due to which the tax demand of many properties increases up to 100 times…. There are a total of 6,735 properties in CP, of which more than 900 owners owe Rs 1,948 crore,” CTI chairman Brijesh Goyal said.
