TimesView In a bizarre move, Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) has introduced a one-time settlement scheme which gives a tax defaulter advantage over the honest tax payer. There are around 50 lakh taxable properties in the city, of which around 45 lakh pay due taxes on time. However, LMC has given 20% discount to defaulters, besides waiving of interest on the principal amount charged as fine, whereas an honest tax payer gets only 10%. A settlement scheme should encourage defaulters to pay pending dues, but should not be unjust to those who meet deadline. In fact, LMC should give a bigger discount for timely payments to motivate people and instead of heavy discount defaulters who cannot pay entire sum in one go, can be given option of easy monthly instalments. LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Municipal Corporation ( LMC ) House on Monday approved a one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for property and water tax defaulters by offering a 20% discount on principal amount and waiving all interest if a defaulter pays the full dues by April, while those paying in May will get 10% discount.The time limit for government departments in the defaulter list to avail the concessions is more and will get 20% discount and full interest waiver if they clear dues by May and 10% till August.According to LMC records, there are around 5 lakh taxable properties which have not paid house/property tax since last six years.They include around 4.8 lakh houses, 19,092 shops, 324 educational institutes and hostels and 1,338 government buildings. Total tax amount due from all these properties is around Rs 790 crore. Poor tax collections resulted in less revenue in past few years. For instance, against an estimated Rs 280 crore in 2016-17, LMC received Rs 192 crore, which further fell to Rs 178 crore in 2017-18 and then to Rs 174 crore in 2018-19.“There are many defaulters who did not pay for years due to legal dispute. As a result, the tax dues mounted over the years. Even after disputes were resolved, a substantial number is not paying up, saying that they are short of money. Now, this move will encourage such defaulters to clear their dues,” said municipal commissioner Indramani Tripathi.“We have given more time to government properties as they need to take approval from senior authorities for payment which often takes time,” he added.When asked that such a scheme would amount to injustice to honest tax payers who pay up regularly on time, he said that we already give them 10% discount.

Stay updated with all the Lucknow Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.