Gurugram civic body mops up Rs 100 crore in property tax in July alone

GURUGRAM: The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), which had been struggling hard to collect revenues during the lockdown, has been able to mop up Rs 100 crore in the form of property tax in July alone.

This might bring some relief to the cash-strapped civic body, but officials expressed doubt if it would be able to meet its property tax target of Rs 1,100 crore in the current financial year.

Till June, MCG had collected only Rs 21 crore from property tax, water and sewerage taxes. Sources said while 2.3 lakh property owners had already paid their taxes, 1.7 lakh were yet to do so.

The lockdown had caused a major dent in MCG’s revenue collection. Till July 4, the civic body had not been able to generate even 1% of its total projected revenue for this fiscal. In its annual budget, MCG has pegged the revenue generation for 2020-21 at Rs 3,800 crore, which includes Rs 1,900 crore through stamp duty, Rs 1,100 crore from property tax and Rs 340 crore as recovery from private colonies.

Officials are, however, hopeful of recovering the pending dues over the next few months. Sources said while MCG had already collected about Rs 124 crore in property tax, it would mop up another Rs 50 crore soon.

A senior MCG official agreed that property tax collection was extremely slow in the first quarter, but picked up pace in the month of July. Of the total Rs 100 crore collected through July, MCG secured Rs 50 crore in the last four days of the month, he said.