With the second wave of Covid threatening to hit MCG’s projected revenue collections , the commissioner on Thursday directed the tax department officials to recover dues from the property tax defaulters, who have already been issued notices, within a month. He would hold a review meeting with the heads of all revenue-generating departments on the second Tuesday of every month.
MCG had estimated a revenue of Rs 1,103 crore from property tax alone in the 2020-21 financial year, however, the civic body could generate only Rs 250 crore of income. The income from property tax in the 2021-22 fiscal year is estimated to be Rs 1,235 crore. Moreover, the MCG had estimated to generate a revenue of around Rs 15 crore from trade licence fees in the previous fiscal, however, it could generate only Rs 8.29 crore. This fiscal’s target is Rs 12 crore.
In an order, MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja highlighted the “dire need to give impetus to the revenue recovery”. While reviewing the property tax collections at the meeting on Thursday, Ahuja said that MCG staff should be assigned duties to inform each defaulter over the phone to pay their dues. “The property owners should be informed that the government is offering a rebate of 10% if they pay their property tax for the 2021-22 fiscal year by July 31,” he said at the meeting.
The property tax collection in the 2021-22 fiscal year so far has been over Rs 29 crore. MCG officials said that the lockdown in April and May affected the tax collection as revenue of Rs 1.02 crore was generated in April and Rs 3.49 crore in May. Moreover, June saw the highest collection in the current fiscal so far with the MCG recovering Rs 24.84 crore of property tax.
“MCG issued around 2,000 notices to the property tax defaulters in the city in June alone. The MCG has to recover a cumulative amount of Rs 100 crore (approx) from these 2,000 defaulters, who have not paid their dues for the past five to 10 years. We have been directed to cut the water and sewerage connection of the properties with pending dues,” said Dinesh Kumar, zonal taxation officer-2.
The MCG commissioner also directed the zonal taxation officers to start a survey in their respective areas to identify commercial units so that they can be sent notices to get trade licences from the civic body. Moreover, the commissioner also directed the officials to act against property owners who have still not applied for their occupation certificates.
