Wednesday, 02 February 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has sent notices to over 400 property owners for non-payment of property taxes which was ascertained through Geographic Information System (GIS) based mapping. These properties are in Kaulagarh ward where MCD started GIS-based survey as a pilot project four months ago. After the survey, the officials detected that owners of over 400 properties, mostly residential buildings, have never paid property tax.
Municipal tax superintendent Dharmesh Painuly informed that MCD has issued notices to all these defaulters. They will have to deposit the taxes along with penalties. MCD is currently conducting the survey in other wards and will issue more notices if the tax section finds such discrepancies there too, he said.
Revenue generated from the property tax collection is one of the main sources of income of MCD and the GIS-based mapping will help it easily mark the properties with unpaid taxes or with incorrect details in the self-assessment form by the owners to the tax section. The corporation has collected about Rs 27 crore property tax so far. The officials have the challenge to attain the target of collecting Rs 50 crore property tax by March 31 but the corporation has collected just about half of the said amount. The corporation is yet to receive about Rs 15 crore property tax from government buildings which can immensely help the tax section to achieve the target. Four institutions- Forest Research Institute (FRI), Survey of India, Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (SIIDCUL) collectively owe about Rs 10 crore of property tax to the corporation and if it gets paid, the said target can be achieved this financial year as per the officials.
