Delhi civic bodies plan to collect property tax at your doorstep

NEW DELHI: With a target to increase property tax collection, civic bodies have started organising camps, filing details online and collecting cheques from doorsteps while following proper Covid guidelines.

A South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) official said that they are talking to the 1,400 common service centres to help in the process of collection and organising camps.

“We have already organised two to three camps this weekend and the process will intensify in the coming days as we plan to make collect maximum advance for the financial year 2021-22 by June 30. All RWAs and market associations can approach us for organising such camps and we will arrange for the staff, provided there is a facility for Wi-Fi and campus to maintain social distance,” said the official.

The residents who visited one of these camps, however, complained about limited staff and poor arrangements. “Some people from our area visited the camp organised in Greater Kailash-I on Saturday. Most of them failed to submit the tax as the computers/laptops were hanging constantly, the staff was not supportive and there was no sufficient arrangement for waiting. For the convenience of residents, we taught them to submit tax online, but there was no mention of a 2% discount when tax is submitted online,” said MK Gupta, president of S block RWA, GK-I.

On this issue, the official said that the computers might be hanging due to poor connectivity or Wi-Fi issues. “Generally, the RWAs/organisers are supposed to make these arrangements and we can’t do much. But to resolve this, we plan to hire 50-60 laptops on rent with a dongle so that the operation doesn’t get affected much,” said the official. “For the 2% rebate given for submitting tax online, the facility can be availed only when the taxable amount is less than Rs 10,000,” the official added.

Civic bodies are giving a 3% per cent rebate for Covid-vaccinated people, and 15% rebate for depositing property tax before June 30.