No property tax record with MC since 2015

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, August 28

Unbelievable as it may sound, the Municipal Corporation Panipat (MCP) has not been maintaining records of any demand or collection of property tax from 1.41 lakh properties under it for the past five years.

Will take action

We are reviewing the inquiry report in which no punitive action has been mentioned against staff. We will initiate action soon. - Sushil Kumar, MCP Commissioner

Panipat tax dues

PERIOD: 2015-20

Amount: Rs 225 cr

With arrears mounting to Rs 225 crore, the MCP has now decided to prepare a record of property tax since 2015. According to sources, 1,41,278 units are registered in the MC records, of which 43,059 are residential, 11,721 commercial, 3,453 industrial, 1,255 institutional and 29,894 vacant plots. Another 50,463 are registered as mixed-use and 1,430 as special category units.

The MCP has to recover Rs 40 crore in property tax this fiscal (2020-21). This is in addition to Rs 225 crore pending for previous years, say the sources. The MCP had set the target of recovering Rs 33 crore last fiscal (2019-2000) but received only Rs 7.42 crore.

Vaibhav Deswal, an RTI activist, said he had sought details of properties that owed over Rs 10 lakh in tax. The MCP, in its reply, sent details of 195 properties owing more than Rs 150 crore. The biggest defaulters were a shopping mall in ward No. 14 (owing Rs 19.16 crore) and another in ward No. 13 (Rs 15.61 crore).

The anomaly in the records came to light following an inquiry by then Joint Commissioner Gaurav Kumar into an alleged scam linked to property tax deposited in the beginning of August. It suggested that even the amount collected or demanded was never audited by the MCP's taxation branch.

MCP Commissioner Sushil Kumar said a tender would be floated in a day or two to engage a private agency to maintain the record.

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