Mammoth exercise to track down municipal tax evaders underway in Ludhiana
MC also eyeing assessees who have not paid water bills since getting the connection or gotten their building plans approved
Launching a crackdown on evasion of various municipal charges and taxes, the municipal corporation (MC) has initiated the Herculean task of tallying payments against the total number of water/sewer connections and properties in the city.
Besides, having discovered a major disparity in the number of power connections and building plans approved in the past three years, the corporation is also working to verify the properties built without approvals. This will also help the MC trace property tax evaders.
Significantly, the cash-strapped MC loses large amount of revenue due to evasion of these payments. The situation is so bleak, the civic body struggles to even pay salaries to its staff.
This had prompted mayor Balkar Sandhu to push the MC staff to expedite recovery of dues.
1 LAKH POWER CONNECTION, 5K BUILDING PLANS
As per PSPCL’s records, around 1 lakh power connections were issued in the past three years. However, MC approved only around 5,000 building plans in the same period, revealing widespread circumvention of the mandatory process.
MC additional commissioner Rishipal Singh said MC will establish the addresses of all these power connections, and thereafter confirm if the building plan was approved, and other municipal charges and taxes were paid.
“We are working to expedite recovery of dues from residents. “This will be achieved by scrutinising payment of taxes and various charges by cross-checking their record with that of different departments,” he added.
NO RECORD OF 1.5 LAKH WATER CONNECTIONS
According to MC, against the over 4 lakh properties in the city, water/sewer bills are being paid against only 1.25 lakh properties only, while another 1.25 lakh are exempted.
It has no information of the remaining 1.5 lakh properties — whether they are paying the charges or they are exempted.
MC TO CALL RESIDENTS
The corporation has formed teams to contact residents via phone.
Through these phone calls, the MC staff will confirm payment of various taxes and user charges, including water-sewer charges, property tax, etc.
According to an MC officials, the payments can be confirmed and tallied with MC records through the Unique Identification Number (UID) provided against each payment.
FOCUS ON INDUSTRIAL UNITS
As per figures shared by the district industry department, around 35,000 industrial units were established in the city in the past decade.
MC is also working to establish whether the owners of these units got water-sewer connections and building plans approved. This will be followed by verification of payments made against these connections, besides those for property tax.