MOHALI: Reeling under a financial crunch for years, the Mohali Municipal Corporation is now acting tough against property tax defaulters. According to sources, the city MC has succeeded in forcing the defaulters to deposit property tax worth Rs 1.75 crore in 2023-24 fiscal. Sources have added that for collecting Rs 1.75 crore, the MC had to issue 1,800 notices, out of which 15 establishments were sealed.
MC Commissioner Navjot Kaur said, “We are now strict against defaulters. We have been giving them ample laxity by extending rebate dates, but the defaulters failed to deposit the tax even then. So, we resorted to sealing of the properties and as a result, we earned Rs 1.75 crore.”
However, she added that the MC is yet to recover property tax worth Rs 5 crore from GMADA, including its sports complexes in the city. Other defaulters in the list are DC office with Rs 40 lakh, Commando Complex with Rs 2.5 lakh, PWD building with Rs 40 lakh and excise and taxation department with Rs 15 lakh. MC Commissioner Kaur said that MC has collected Rs 31 crore property tax from the defaulters by February end, against a target of Rs 35 crore as target income from property tax allocated in 2023-24 budget. “This year, the MC went on to seal defaulter units, which forced commercial property owners to clear pending property tax. Secondly, MC had also set up property tax collection camps, which simplified the process.
The draft notification issued recently has stated that property tax will be calculated based on the guidance value of the property per square feet per year.
