Delhi civic body to not extend deadline for property geo-tagging

NEW DELHI: More than two lakh taxpayers have geo-tagged their properties on its mobile app and all glitches, including those related with the iOS system, have been sorted out, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said on Tuesday. It has also issued a public notice in this regard, explaining that there is no plan to extend the deadline of Feb 29 for taxpayers wanting to avail 10% rebate on advance payment of property tax. However, a few residents are facing problems in getting updated information after uploading the mobile
app. Some glitches are still there and we want the deadline to be extended further, they said.

“Till date, 2.25 lakh taxpayers have geo-tagged their properties. Our app is functioning smoothly on iPhone and there are no glitches in its operation on both Android and iOS systems. We are expecting
heavy traffic on the app and good feedback in the last few days of this month,” said an MCD official. The public notice issued on Tuesday stated: “Considering a large number of taxpayers are using iPhone
(iOS version), due to some technical glitches or other reasons, Jan 31 deadline was extended for a month. Now, those glitches have been sorted out and all the taxpayers can download the unified mobile app
(UMA) on both android and iOS phones through Play or Apple store or by visiting the website and geotag
their properties.”

“To avail 10% rebate on lump sum payment for 2024-25, taxpayers are advised to pay the tax in advance. Likewise, those who could not file the tax for the current financial year 2023-24 are advised to do so till
Mar 31,” said the official. Till Tuesday, 11.4 lakh people have submitted their property tax and in 2022-23, till March 31, total 13.3
lakh people had submitted the tax. Sanjay Rana, general secretary of GK-II RWA, said that he had geo-tagged his property through someone
else’s Android phone. “On Tuesday, I tried verifying the information on my iPhone. While I was able to download the app and login smoothly using OTP generated on a registered mobile number, my property
was still in red (not geo-tagged),” explained Rana

Officials said that people with old iPhone versions needed to update the software to use the app without
any hassle.
SB Singh, president of Lajpat Nagar III RWA, had also geo-tagged his property through other’s Android
phone, but now, he is able to access the information on his iPhone.
Ashok Aggarwal of Safdarjung Enclave was, however, lucky to download the app, furnish all information
and geo-tag his property in one go using his iPhone a month back.
Meanwhile, to help taxpayers, some residents’ welfare associations are claiming to be giving demonstrations on their own, hiring staff to assist the needy people and even buying a few Android
phones to accelerate the process for geo-tagging property.
PK Paul of East Bengal Displaced Persons’Association, CR Park said that they recently held two sessions for residents, especially those using iPhone.
In Lajpat Nagar also, such camps are being held. “In our colony, we are asking residents to submit Google form furnishing details of properties and assisting them through our RWA members. But a large number
of queries are still unattended so MCD should extend the deadline,” said Rana.