Officials have claimed that there are at least 1 lakh properties whose owners did not pay property tax even once since 2013-14. Officials have been asked to locate such defaulters and make them file their tax returns, even if they are under exemption.
The officials have also prepared a list of some properties where they doubt wrong assessment of tax amount in which shop cum offices in some markets are included. Officials claimed that they will serve the notices to such defaulters so that they should get one chance to prove if they paid the right amount of tax or there is any error. The defaulters will have to pay the pending amount with penalty, which is 100 percent to the tax amount.
MC superintendent Vivek Verma said, “According to our data, we have estimated at least 1 lakh properties are untouched from where we did not get tax in any year, so the concerned officials are told to catch hold of such defaulters.” He said some markets falling in zone D are under scanner where they are checking whether owners deposited the correct amount of tax. He claimed that in such markets, they are checking 200-300 properties.
Meanwhile, the time given to bus stand authorities is also coming to end and now officials will again go for sealing of the bus stand. MC officials claimed that local officials at bus stand have brought the matter in the knowledge of senior authorities in Chandigarh and have asked them to clear the dues or else bus stand will be sealed. The MC officials are hopeful that they will get the dues cleared if they continue to put pressure on them.
UID numbers not allotted to all
The officials claimed that difference appears between the properties surveyed by GIS and returns filed in these past years because all properties did not get the UID numbers. In zone A block 32 , in zone B blocks 30,31 and in zone D block 29 are yet be allotted UID numbers and that is why officials do not have record of properties. These blocks cover half of the properties and are large in size.