LUDHIANA: The offices of deputy commissioner and police commissioner are among the many defaulters who have not cleared their property tax dues since 2014-15. Besides the government departments, the municipal corporation ( MC ) will serve notices on petrol pumps and liquor vends, too, giving them a week to clear their pending dues.The government departments on the defaulters’ list also include Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA), Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), zila parishad complex and Punjab water supply and sewerage board.“When these departments were earlier told to pay up, they had asked the civic body to adjust their tax amount with money it borrowed for various development works. This had then hampered the recovery drive,” said an MC official.Now with MC commissioner KP Brar issuing fresh orders to make recoveries, the officials are on their toes to collect Rs 50 crore to achieve the target of Rs 100 crore this fiscal.“Notices will be sent to the defaulters. Petrol pumps and liquor vends will face sealing if they fail to pay up,” Brar said.MC collects a ‘meagre Rs 4 crore’ from Focal PointWith Focal Point up in arms against MC for “failing to provide basic civic amenities despite recovery of property tax”, the latter claimed that they collected just Rs 4 crore last fiscal from the area. “Every year, MC collects only Rs 4 crore as property tax from the area which is not even sufficient to repair its roads. The amount is collected from units in phases 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Phases 1 and 2 are residential areas. And, MC does not recover tax from Phase 4 as industrialists have formed a special purpose vehicle for development works. Except Phase 4, the entire Focal Points pays property tax equivalent to residential areas,” said an MC official

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