While making the property tax less taxing for the residents by reducing the penalties and extending the deadline to avail rebate, the Punjab Government has also made it clear that coercive methods will be used to ensure payment.
In addition, the State Government has also clarified that the last date for availing 10 per cent rebate will not be extended further. Punjab Government has already given three extensions for availing rebate on the filing property tax. With the latest date being December 31, the deadline was initially fixed at November 30, and then December 10.
Originally, the 10 per cent “early payment” rebate would be given to those property owners who deposit the tax by June 30 of each year, and have provision of there is heavy penalty on those who default on paying tax by due date — September 30. All such defaulters would be fined at a rate of 25 per cent of the tax payable and 15 per cent annual interest for the delayed period.
But, the rebate period was set till November 30 “only for this year” as the Act for the same was passed by the State Vidhan Sabha in October only, and the same was implemented from October 1.
Observing that more and more people turn up to pay property tax when the deadline for availing rebate draw close, the State Government has decided to give another chance to the residents, “but for the last time”.
This is not all! To ensure complete payment, the State Government has also decided to bring down the penalties it has imposed at different stages.
“A cross-section of people has some problems regarding high rate of property tax, and then penalties. So as to ensure that maximum people submit their tax, we have lowered the rate of penalties and also increased the time limit to claim the rebate,” said the State local bodies director Priyank Bharti.
He said that the State Government has reduced the rate of penalty, to be imposed after January 31 on paying property tax, from 25 per cent to 20 per cent; and from 50 per cent to 40 per cent which would be imposed after March.
With this, the residents could pay property tax by December 31 by availing 10 per cent rebate. “Neither any rebate would be given nor any penalty be imposed on those who would pay property tax by January 31,” he added.
“For those filing tax after January 31, would have to pay 20 per cent as penalty, which was 25 per cent earlier. And, if still there are people left who have not paid their property tax, they can pay tax with 40 per cent penalty with 18 per cent interest. The earlier rate was 50 per cent,” he added.
And to ensure that all applicable residents pay their tax, the local bodies department has put in place several “strong-arm” measures including blacklisting of the defaulters.
“Those who fail to pay the property tax would have to pay a big price. They will be blacklisted, meaning that such people would not be provided with any facility like water and electricity supply, among other things,” added a senior local bodies official.
The official said that a list of defaulters would be prepared, the copies of which would be supplied to the concerned Development Authorities, Deputy Commissioner office, water and electricity departments, so that no facility be provided to them.
“The defaulters would not be able to get their properties registered, and their water, power connections will be disconnected,” added the official.
Even as the Government has estimated to generate additional annual revenue of `360 crore from the property tax which would directly go to the local Bodies Department and not to the state treasury, it is estimating to earn less than `200 crore in the current financial year considering the delay in its implementation.
Till date, the Government has collected `144 crore, which includes a whopping `90 crore from the State’s seven municipal corporations — including ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Bathinda, and Mohali — and the rest from the municipal councils.