Residents flock to Karnal MC office on last day to avail 10% rebate on property tax

Residents thronged the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) office on Thursday to deposit their property tax on the last day to avail the 10 per cent rebate on the current financial year’s property tax. Even though it was a holiday, the MC kept its cash counters open to allow the residents to clear their dues and avail the rebate. It has set up four dedicated counters to streamline the process.

The officials claimed that till the filing of the report, a sum of around Rs 67 lakh was collected on the final day alone. With this, the total property tax collection for the current financial year has reached Rs 15.55 crore, surpassing last year’s collection of Rs 11.40 crore. The target for the current financial year is Rs 25 crore.

“Even though Thursday was a holiday, we kept our cash counters open for the general public to deposit their dues. We set up four counters to assist them. A large number of residents came in person to pay their dues, while many others deposited their property tax online to avail the 10 per cent rebate,” said Abhe Singh, Deputy Municipal Commissioner. He claimed that the MC would continue issuing notices to property tax defaulters. If they failed to clear their dues, their properties would be attached.

“If payments are not made within the stipulated time by the property tax defaulters, the corporation will initiate action to attach the properties under the provisions of the Municipal Act,” the Deputy Municipal Commissioner said. It is learnt that in the last one-and-a-half months, from June 13 onward, when the MC started a special drive, it has collected around Rs 13.20 crore in property tax. Around 50 properties were attached during the period, but a majority of them were released after dues were cleared.

As per the official data, there are a total of 1,70,758 registered properties in the city. These include 86,451 domestic, 14,906 commercial, 1,255 industrial, 1,326 institutional, 50,686 vacant plots, 2,018 under special categories such as banquet halls, restaurants, banks, and marriage palaces, 7,960 mixed-use properties, and 6,156 agricultural properties. However, only 60,691 of these properties have been self-certified by their owners.

The data further revealed that around Rs 315 crore property tax was at present pending.Of this, approximately Rs 117 crore is owed by the general public, while Rs 197 crore is pending from various government institutions, including both Union and state government bodies.

Haryana Tribune