Property tax collection moves at a snail’s pace

As the last date of depositing property tax with 10 per cent rebate ends on March 31, the Municipal Corporation of Jalandhar (MCJ) has collected tax from only 35 per cent property holders.

The city has about 2.25 lakh properties identified by the civic body, the property tax of which is to be filed. But the tax, which was replaced by house tax, of only 80,000 properties has been submitted so far.

This means that the tax of 1.5 lakh properties has not been filed in the city. The process of filing property tax started on October 10 last year in Punjab.

“To provide relief to commercial units, the state government decreased property tax from 7 per cent to 3 per cent for commercial and from 3 per cent to 1.5 per cent for industries. Many started thinking that the state government may announce further decrease keeping in view the election. This has become a problematic area for us,” a senior official said.

The municipal corporation earlier organised awareness camps in different wards to inform people about the benefits of filing property tax.

The civic body has collected Rs 21.74 crore from 80,000 property holders in the city so far.

The MC had recently started a facility to pay the property tax at nearby branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB), but this scheme also received lukewarm response from the public.

An average 150 people visit MC office for depositing property tax daily, officials said. Property tax superintendent Rajiv Rishi said the tax collection staff was doing its best but some people belonging to political parties and associations were misguiding people saying the property tax policy will be abolished.

People can also avail the facility of online self-assessment of property tax to calculate their taxes by visiting the website www.mcjpropertytax.in.