Unpaid property tax: Panchkula MC to seal defaulting government buildings

From next week, the Panchkula municipal corporation will start sealing government buildings that have defaulted on property tax payment.

The decision was taken by local MLA Gian Chand Gupta while heading a meeting with regard to development works in Panchkula, held at the Haryana Assembly on Tuesday.

The issue of property tax defaulters was taken up during the meeting, which was also attended by Panchkula mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, MC commissioner Virender Kumar Lather and councillors.

As many as 1,619 government buildings figure in the property tax defaulters’ list, with dues reaching ₹50 crore.

Owing dues worth ₹5.9 crore, the Uttari Haryana Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited office in Sector 6 tops the list.

Similarly, there are 1,559 private property tax defaulters, who also owe over ₹50 crore to the corporation.

The dues have been piling up since 2010, when the Panchkula MC was constituted. In 2013, a notification was issued by the Haryana government, directing the civic body to collect property tax retrospectively from 2010.

The meeting also took up the issue of new and old property tax IDs that have been causing inconvenience to residents.

Executive officer Aakash Kapoor said 30 employees were working till late night to correct the IDs: “Daily, 1,000 IDs are being checked and corrections are being made where needed.”

A survey by Sai Company in 2016-2017 had found 1.90 lakh properties in the city. However, a new survey by Yashi Consultancy in 2018 had pegged the number at 97,406.

To correct the discrepancy, MC has been verifying all property IDs and uploading correct IDs on its website. Till date, as many as 40,000 IDs have been verified and uploaded by the corporation.