In an effort for financial accountability, Chandigarh Municipal Commissioner Amit Kumar on Monday issued a stern warning to major property tax defaulters, mainly government buildings, to clear their outstanding dues, reconcile discrepancies or face strict measures.

The commissioner held a high-level meeting with the top 10 defaulters in each category – government commercial buildings, standalone commercial buildings and government residential buildings, highlighting that continued delay could lead to strict action against them.

“We regularly send notices to property tax defaulters, both in commercial and residential categories. However, on Monday, the top 10 defaulters from each major category were called for a meeting. They have been asked to clear their pending dues and, in case of discrepancies, reconcile the data with MC within the next two days. We will take strict action against them in case of further delay,” Kumar said.

There are around 30,000 commercial units (non-residential properties) in Chandigarh, including government buildings, which pay property taxes to MC. A total of 1,08,372 residential properties in the city are also subject to fixed rate property tax.

According to official MC data, commercial and government buildings alone owe a huge sum to the corporation. ₹250 crores from property tax/service tax, which is a major source of its annual revenue. However, of the total amount, ₹187 crore remains in dispute or is disputed.

In addition, residential buildings must also ₹15.8 crores to the company. Panjab University (PU), Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and Chandigarh Golf Club are among the major defaulters (see box). The list of defaulters is long, comprising 670 buildings of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh Central governments. Even the UT administration is yet to clear its taxes.

The MC’s decision to target the biggest defaulters comes amid the ongoing financial crisis which has forced it to suspend all development-related works in the city since May this year. After Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria refused to release any “special grant” and ordered civil servants to reduce annual expenditure and increase revenue from their own sources, the MC started looking for ways to recover outstanding arrears, especially pending ones. property taxes and water bills.

The MC has only two remedies against defaulters as per the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act. It can issue a notice to defaulters and seal the property in question if contributions remain unpaid, a provision difficult to implement on the ground. But sealing institutes like PGI, PU or UT buildings would be more difficult.

Try to make solid waste management autonomous: Mayor

Mayor Dhalor also chaired a meeting of all department heads of different wings of the MC on Monday to discuss the scope of revenue generation. The mayor asked officials to recover water arrears and penalize violators in accordance with the rules. “Replace faulty and leaking meters early and immediately. Also find ways to reduce expenses on solid waste management in the city and gather ideas from different municipalities across the country, where autonomous measures are being taken. Also prepare a list of vacant properties so that these can be rented out and recovery process initiated against defaulters,” the mayor ordered the officers. The mayor said any kind of recovery from defaulters of cell tower charges should be done as soon as possible and a revenue model should be defined to generate revenue from display advertisements. He said significant revenue could be generated from gyms in the city’s community centers.