Over Four Lakh People yet to File House Tax in South Delhi

NEW DELHI: The deadline for submitting property tax with a rebate of 15% is fast approaching, but because of changes in the website of the corporations several taxpayers have been unable to file it.

South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) plans to hold camps to encourage property owners to file their taxes. Data from the civic body shows that owners of 4-4.5 lakh properties are yet to file their taxes.

“Around 1.15 lakh people have submitted their taxes, thereby availing 15% rebate. Around 95,000 have paid through the new online property tax portal, while the rest used the manual payment system,” a senior SDMC official said.

The civic body is also planning to extend the rebate deadline. Another official told TOI that the file in this regard was under consideration of the deliberative wing members. “Earlier, the deadline to avail 15% rebate had been extended once in the last financial year. Around 2 lakh property taxpayers had availed the rebate by July 7 last year,” he added.

A large chunk of the rebate period has been lost because of the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown. Municipal data shows that so far 152 property tax payment camps have been organised by central, south, west and Najafgarh zones. “In these camps, 18,000 people filed taxes to the tune of Rs 25 crore,” an official said.

The revenue-deprived civic body announced that 75 more such camps would be organised in association with ward councillors, RWAs and market associations in the coming days and offices would remain open on weekends to facilitate payment of property tax.

SDMC had unveiled its new online tax payment portal this year, but residents reported multiple issues ranging from OTPs not being received to being made to fill the entire data again. On June 4, the civic body announced that it would provide both online and manual facility as well as payment by cheques.

“All zonal offices were open on all Saturdays in June so that no taxpayer missed out on the opportunity of availing 15% rebate,” the official said.

While citizens’ groups like URJA stated that the old property tax system was much more user friendly, municipal officials defended the new system by arguing that in the long run the new portal would introduce more transparency.