As property dues mount in Covid, Gurugram civic body stares at shortage of funds

GURUGRAM: With property tax arrears climbing to around Rs 932 crore, coupled with a slow recovery of the current year’s demand of Rs 235 crore, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram is not only struggling to generate revenue but also staring at a funds crunch.

In terms of property tax dues, Zone 2 (Udyog Vihar and Palam Vihar) tops the list with Rs 276 crore pending, followed by Zone 4 (Sohna Road and Gold Course extension road) with Rs 275 crore, Zone 3 (Cybercity and Golf Course Road) with Rs 221 crore and Zone 1 (Old Gurugram) with Rs 159 crore. Around 48,000 properties have dues in Zone 2, 47,111 properties in Zone 1, 40,000 in Zone 3 and 47,000 in Zone 4.

According to officials of the taxation wing, the department has been able to mop up only Rs 18 crore this year so far — which is less than 10% of the demand. Of all the zones, the maximum demand of Rs 102 crore is due from Zone 3 this year. Of that, only Rs 2 crore has been recovered so far.

A senior official said that there are more than 3,600 properties where the property tax dues are more than Rs 5 lakh each and recovery from them is a major challenge.

“While Zone 2 has 1,171 properties with dues of more than Rs 5 lakh, there are 970, 953 and 539 such properties in Zone 4, 3 and 1, respectively. The civic body has issued around 1,336 notices to these properties for recovery of dues to the tune of over Rs 140 crore,” said an official.

Last year, TOI had reported that lockdown has caused a major dent in MCG’s revenues as it had not been able to generate even 1% of its projected amount for the first quarter of the fiscal.

Meanwhile, the officials blamed the pandemic for the poor recovery and the pressure on the civic body’s coffers. In a meeting held last week, the officials were directed to prepare a plan of action to expedite the recovery of dues in order to improve the financial health of the corporation.

MCG officials, however, called it a temporary revenue loss and said that the dues will be recovered in the next few months. The corporation has taken a few steps to recover these dues. It initiated action against the defaulters and warned them of disconnecting sewerage and water connections if the dues are not settled within 15 days of getting the notice.

Further, in order to ensure higher compliance with regard to recovery of property tax dues, the former civic body chief had directed the tehsil officials not to allow any property registration unless the applicant has a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the corporation with regards to the payment of property taxes.