Gurugram: Maintaining a strict stance on the payment of property tax, the Gurugram civic body is taking strict action against the defaulters. In this process the public agency has served notices to 76 wedding banquet halls in the city. With weddings being a viable business, these banquet halls for long have been earning huge profits and have gained popularity as alternatives compared to farmhouses in South and South-West Delhi that are more expensive.
With the owners of these banquets halls not paying the property tax, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has served them warning by issuing the notices. A major factor for the halls to not pay the taxes is also cited of it being illegal. According to sources more than 90 percent for the halls have not met the guidelines of the municipal body. Moreover, most of these halls have come up at the 900-metre restricted zone of the Indian Airforce ammunition depot.
Some of the major rules which the marriage halls have to comply with are being located at a main road which is 18-metre and the service road being 12-metre wide. It should be spread in the area of minimum one acre .The ground floor must be around 50 percent of the construction area, the banquet hall must not be 21 metre long and the main entrance should be 1.8 metre lower than the building .
Divided in four municipal zones, maximum number of these halls is located in zone -2 with 45 halls. This is followed by halls in zone -1 at 21 and zone -3 and zone -4 with five each.
"Most of the halls in zone-2 have already been sent notice and have been given time to comply with the orders following which required action will be initiated against them." Said an MCG official.