Rs 3.43 crore yet to be collected from 5,200 house owners Kulwinder Sangha Mohali, June 19 The civic body had twice issued notices to defaulters. The MC has now formed three teams, comprising two employees each, for visiting the houses of the offenders, who have failed to pay property tax ever since it was levied four years ago. The team members have been told to “persuade” them to pay the tax besides warning them that if the outstanding amount was not cleared, their property could be sealed under the law by the MC. After failing to collect property tax from offenders in residential areas through various means, the Mohali Municipal Corporation has now begun resorting to “personal persuasion” to get them cough up Rs 3.43 crore, which they owe to it. As many as 5,200 house owners have not paid their property tax so far. The civic body had twice issued notices to tax defaulters under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, but most of them ignored the notices. The MC has now formed three teams, comprising two employees each, for visiting the houses of the offenders, who have failed to pay property tax ever since it was levied four years ago. The team members have been told to “persuade” them to pay the tax besides warning them that if the outstanding amount was not cleared, their property could be sealed under the law by the MC. Orders to this effect were given by MC Joint Commissioner Avneet Kaur and the teams began contacting offenders on June 16. According to the orders, each team has been given a daily target of 50 houses. However, on the first day, the three teams jointly could only visit 50 houses. The three teams started work from Phases I, VII and X. Sources said property tax due from residential areas in 2013-14 was Rs 90 lakh, in 2014-15 Rs 75 lakh, in 2015-16 Rs 88 lakh and in 2016-17 Rs 90 lakh. The civic body had collected Rs 9.50 crore from residential areas as property tax over the past four years. The first visit of the corporation employees to the houses of offenders revealed that some of them were defence personnel, who have been exempted from the payment of property tax. Some of them were widows while some others were physically challenged persons, who claimed they were not aware of the tax but would now pay it after coming to know of it. It is learnt that five or six persons reached the corporation office to pay the tax after a visit of civic body employees to their houses.

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