The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which is facing a financial crisis, has its eyes on the properties of the people of Delhi. The civic body wants to extract maximum property tax from the pockets of the people of Delhi. For this, the corporation officials have started adopting various tactics.
Earlier, in the name of making property tax uniform across Delhi, rates were hiked for North and East Delhiites. Now, other types of trivial methods are being resorted to. Corporation officials are trying to bring maximum properties out of 25 lakh properties under the wealth tax net.
It’s pertinent to note here that if one has registered the deed of tenancy, he/she may have to pay more house tax. The property tax department of the municipal corporation has started the process of identification of such properties in every zone.
According to a top official of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, more is being charged by way of property tax than the properties let out. But the owners of the properties either do not inform the municipality about it or do not deposit the amount. Even then they deposit the tax at the normal rates.
Now, such properties are being identified at zonal level. For this, work is going on both online and offline. The eyes of the corporation officials are on such people who get the tenancy deed registered. Corporation officials are collecting such information from the sub-registrar offices and related websites so that maximum wealth tax can be collected by bringing such properties under the purview of wealth tax.
The biggest challenge is the properties of unregulated colonies
It may be noted here that irregular colonies are the biggest challenge before the property tax department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. There are more than 20 lakh such properties in these colonies, from which the Municipal Corporation does not get any property tax. But most of these properties are houses ranging from 20 to 100 square yards.
Among these too, the highest number is of houses measuring 50-60 yards or even less. Most of these properties fall in the lower category, from where not much property tax is expected to accrue. Therefore, the corporation officers are busy in locating the commercial properties of such colonies, so that maximum property tax can be collected from them.