NDMC To Recover Property Tax

Facing a serious financial crunch, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to recover all the property tax dues. For this, the corporation has decided to publish the names of tax defaulters in newspapers. Officials say that defaulters will be given a month’s time to settle the dues after which the corporation will initiate legal action against them.

“We have been trying to avoid this for long, but now we are left with no option. We will take stringent action against the defaulters if they don’t pay up,” Yogender Chandolia, chairman, standing committee, North Corporation, said.

The corporation will publish the list of people who have dues more than Rs 5 lakh pending against them.

As per official records, there are 1,070 defaulters and the total amount to be recovered is Rs 120 crore. “This is a huge amount for our corporation. Our annual property tax collection target is Rs 350 crore. Post-trifurcation, our financial condition has deteriorated. We had to cut down on our expenses. We are now struggling to boost our revenue, but the options are limited,” said Chandolia.

The erstwhile MCD, too, had published the names and addresses of 4,816 defaulters last year. Councillors say that the embarrassment faced by people will help ensure faster payment. The amount due was Rs 637 crore. Officials say that a good sum was recovered by the corporation. “The previous exercise had yielded good results. We are hopeful that this time too we will be able to get a good response,” said Chandolia.