Gurugram civic body to enlist pvt agencies to distribute property tax bills to owners

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will outsource the work of property tax bill distribution to private agencies, which will also be tasked to collect the details of each property owner including her/ his phone number so that these can be updated on the database, civic officials said on Tuesday.

MCG officials said the database currently don’t have phone numbers for over 90% of the individual owners.

PC Meena, MCG commissioner, said they have to hire a private agency to distribute property tax assessment in sectors with independent houses and gated colonies such as South City-1 and 2, Sushant Lok 1 and 2, Palam Vihar, DLF Phase 1, 2, 3 and 4 and other Sectors.

“For housing societies, our team will tie up with resident welfare associations (RWAs) and will seek their help in distributing the bills and collecting data,” he said.

Earlier, MCG had used the regular post to send these tax bills but several residents complained of non receipt of bills. It was after this that the civic body decided to outsource tax bill distribution to a private agency.

Property tax collection is one of MCG’s main revenue source and accounts for about 70% of the civic body’s earnings at anywhere between ₹250-400 crore every financial year.

Tax is levied on commercial and residential plot owners in the city.Currently, tax can be paid at MCG offices or through online transaction, said officials.

SS Rohilla, spokesperson, MCG, said they have collected data of 600,000 residents of which 200,000 are residing in high-rises. “The tax assessment wing has been asked to check all the entries on the no dues portal (NDP) to ensure that no application request is rejected without a valid reason. Residents have been complaining about a high number of rejections on the portal leading to a long queue at the MCG office,” he said.

Vinod Tayal, a resident of DLF Phase 2, said MCG’s portal rejects applications even for minor issues and the entire process take more than half an hour.

“The property tax camps are also not very helpful as they are unable to rectify the details mentioned in the document. The whole process is too complicated,” he said.

A MCG official said one of the major challenges that the department is facing is the non-availability of mobile phone numbers of residents on the application forms. “We are unable to inform residents about upcoming camps or any related development in their area. Once we have the list of phone numbers, the official concerned can connect with them,” said Rohilla.

The civic body has already taken several new initiatives to improve property tax collection this year and introduced online payment platforms.

MCG officials said a property tax survey conducted by a private agency in January 2022 found that properties falling under the tax ambit have increased from 307,000 to 514,000. The MCG created new property IDs based on the survey and then invited objections from residents. Residents claimed that the new property IDs had incorrect details, creating a faulty database.

The residential, institutional, commercial and industrial properties in the city have to pay property tax as per the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 by July 31 to claim 10% rebate, said officials.

Meena said he has directed joint commissioners of four zones to check objections raised on the portal and to timely resolve the issue so that residents can pay their taxes on time. “We have organised several camps for corrections to ensure that residents do not have to visit the MCG office and amy issue is resolved on the spot. Residents can also pay property tax on the spot at these camps,” he said.