Property tax payers, who?

Updated On: 27 January, 2010 08:31 AM IST | | Surender Sharma

Only 9 lakh people are assessed out of the 40 lakh. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will hire an agency to maintain a complete data

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Only 9 lakh people are assessed out of the 40 lakh. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi will hire an agency to maintain a complete data

It seems that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) does not know from where the lion's share of its revenues come from and how much of it is still untapped.

MCD Commissioner KS Mehra says power discoms can be engaged in collecting data about properties that can be assessed for tax

The civic agency gets the majority of its revenues in terms of property tax paid by Delhiites. However, out of the total 40 lakh assesses only 9 lakh pay their property tax.

The MCD admits that it does not have exhaustive data of its taxpayers due to "shortage of staff".

Standing Committee chairman Ram Kishen Singhal said, "We have asked Commissioner, KS Mehra to come up with a concrete proposal so that tax evaders could be nabbed. Either the MCD will rope in the power discoms or take help of any other agency to find out the real number of properties and bring all the property owners in the tax ambit," said Singhal. When asked why MCD has failed to do it so far, he said: "We do not have adequate staff to undertake such a cumbersome exercise," he added.

MCD Commissioner KS Mehra said, "There were various reasons as to why we failed in identifying the tax payers. But now MCD is coming up with a comprehensive plan to identify them and make them pay tax. MCD has received a report from Survey of India and sought help from resident's welfare associations is also being taken."

He added that engaging the power discoms is also proposed. "Now, we are moving in right earnest," Mehra.

Why people don't pay tax?

MCD officials say there are various reasons for it. They said lack of political will and interference from the "influential netas" are the main reasons behind it. "Every party kept on ducking the issue just to score browny points over others," said an official, wishing anonymity.u00a0

"And most important of all reasons was that those responsible for collecting property tax themselves advised the people how they could evade it after they were bribed," said the official.

MCD officials said even after the introduction of unit area method in 2004, the number of taxpayers has been apparently static. "One reason is that we have not been able to nail the defaulters, but after the introduction of this method those who were paying the tax got more scientific and accurate calculation. So, those whose tax was being calculated wrongly have got it right now," he said.