PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun(MCD) on Tuesday has directed its tax inspectors to conduct an intensive survey to identify newly constructed residential and commercial buildings that have not been brought under the property tax net. The exercise has been given a 15-day deadline, with the civic body also considering the use of technology to identify untaxed properties. At present, around 1.18 lakh buildings in Dehradun are covered under property tax. Officials expect the number to increase after the survey, particularly with rapid construction and expansion of the city in recent years.
The survey will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, newly constructed residential and commercial buildings that are outside the tax net will be identified and assessed. The exercise will focus particularly on new commercial buildings in areas that were brought under the MCD following expansion of its municipal limits.
In the second phase, the civic body will identify properties where additional floors or structures have been constructed after the original assessment. For instance, if a house was earlier a single-storey structure and property tax was being paid accordingly, but was later expanded to two or three floors, the additional construction will be assessed for tax purposes. Similar action will be taken against expanded commercial properties.
Officials said that some property owners construct new buildings without depositing property tax, while in other cases tax continues to be collected according to the old structure even after additional construction. This results in revenue loss for the civic body.
The MCD has set an annual property tax collection target of Rs 75 crore for the current financial year. It has collected around Rs 30 crore so far. The civic body is now seeking to accelerate the recovery before employees are engaged in election-related duties and census work. Dehradun municipal commissioner Alok Kumar Pandey said that the survey had been ordered to identify buildings outside the property tax net. He said that properties where construction had been expanded but tax was still being collected on the basis of the old structure would also be identified.
