Delhi launches crackdown on property tax evaders

With owners of only about 30 per cent of properties in the city paying tax to Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the civic body launched a door-to-door survey from today to find out the exact number of units remaining out of the tax net.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi recorded an all-time high gross property tax collection of Rs1,157 crore in the 2009-10 fiscal, with the number of taxpayers also reaching the highest-ever figure of Rs9.73 lakh. However, officials say owners of an estimated 22 lakh properties in the city are not paying tax to the civic agency, according to a PTI report.

As a result, the tax collection for 2009-10 fiscal was nearly Rs250 crore less than the target of Rs1,400 crore.

The proposal for a comprehensive door-to-door survey of all the properties within the jurisdiction of the corporation was doing rounds for the several months.

Issuing a public notice, the MCD said the survey will be carried out by the assessment and collection department with effect from today through its property surveyors. Officials had earlier said MCD domestic breeding checkers (DBCs), generally used for undertaking inspection to check for mosquito breeding in houses, will be pressed into service for the survey.

In the notice, the MCD has asked the owners or occupiers of properties to ''cooperate and furnish correct information or documents to the surveyors'', warning that non-cooperation will ''attract penal provisions under the DMC (Delhi Municipal Corporation) Act, 1957 and the Indian Penal Code.''