GHAZIABAD: The civic corporation that cracked down on tax defaulters and sealed 210 properties since Jan 1 has recovered Rs 4.7 crore as over 150 of the dodgers rushed to deposit their dues.
The corporation has mopped up Rs 127 crore in taxes this fiscal year. GMC’s chief tax assessment officer Sanjeev Sinha said the corporation had prepared a list of 1 lakh defaulters across the district. Among them, around 2,900 major defaulters owed the civic body Rs 313 crore.
“To encourage people to pay taxes on time, the civic body offered tax rebates — till Oct, there was a 10% rebate on house tax, and the concession was slashed by 5% for Nov and Dec. Initially, the corporation had decided not to give any more concessions from Jan but later decided to continue the 5% rebate till January 31,” Sinha said.
Simultaneously, GMC also started to seal the properties of major defaulters, the officer said. “We sealed 210 properties across the five zones. Around 150 property owners cleared their dues in full and these were de-sealed. The process of sealing is still going on,” Sinha added.
While most properties — a total of 66 — were sealed in the city zone, the 25 defaulters in Vasundhara zone owe the corporation Rs 3.9 crore, the highest in dues.
Between April 1 and December 20 last year, GMC collected Rs 171.4 crore in property. Short of its target, in December last year GMC identified 2,900 defaulters, of them 24 defaulters cumulatively owe the corporation Rs 48 crore. Eleven of these major defaulters were from Vasundhara zone, 10 from city and two from Mohan Nagar. There are many defaulters who have not paid taxes in the last five years and GMC had warned that it will act against wilful defaulters, which included sealing.
The house tax calculation is based on the Annual Ratable Value (ARV) for housing and industrial properties, which is 7% of ARV. The tax for empty and open plots is based on the property’s capital value. On August 15, the civic body digitalized its tax collection allowing property owners to pay house, sewer and water taxes through credit or debit cards, QR code and RTGS.
