Gurugram, March 30 (IANS) The Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) has failed to take action against more than 2,000 property tax defaulters of the city.
Sources said that the corporation has not even given notice to any property tax defaulter for the last three years, whereas the corporation has a rule to recover the property tax by sealing and auctioning the property of the property tax defaulters.
They said that the corporation has property tax dues of about Rs 400 crore against 2,000 people for more than five years in all four zones of the Municipal Corporation.
The sources said that to recover this property tax, the corporation should give them notice every year as well as seal their property and auction it to collect the property tax, but since 2020, the corporation has not even issued notices to the property tax defaulters.
The Municipal Corporation had gotten the city’s properties surveyed by a private agency in 2020. Earlier, the corporation had IDs of 3.80 lakh properties, but after the new survey, the corporation currently has IDs of 6.92 lakh properties.
“In four years, the corporation has created new IDs for properties but has not been able to increase the income from property taxes. The corporation officials are not paying attention to property tax recovery; the recovery of property tax is stuck at Rs 250 crore,” sources said.
They added that talking about the year 2019, about Rs 1100 crore was deposited in the corporation’s accounts, which has now come down to Rs 300 crore.
Sources said that the major reason for this is that due to the decrease in the income of the corporation, the deposited capital is getting exhausted.
“Crores of rupees are being spent on the construction of roads, flyovers, a medical college, buildings, and parking, but income from various sources has reduced, and due to low income and high expenditure, the corporation’s treasury is getting empty,” sources said.
They added that the Municipal Corporation distributed about Rs 400 crore to other departments from 2018 to 2020. However, this amount was given to these departments only after the order of the government.
“In the year 2024-25, the corporation had set a target of income of Rs 1550 crore, and the income was reduced to only 940 crore. Apart from this, Rs 1495 crore was to be spent, but the corporation spent a total of Rs 1020 crore on various development works, etc,” sources further added.
Meanwhile, Ashok Kumar Garg, MCG Commissioner, said that action will be taken soon against property tax defaulters.
“Officials have given instructions to give them notice from next month,” he said.
–IANS
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