In its drive to realise property tax from big fish having crores in outstanding taxes in the walled city, the local civic body sent notices to ghost addresses and property owners.
Officers of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation [NDMC] property tax department, however, are relying on over four decades old records to send these notices, which obviously garner no response. The addresses mentioned in the records of local civic body are not traceable by the department and some of the addresses are not traceable even by local police beat constables.
Millennium Post, in its visit to these properties, found that they have been divided and sold several times over and nobody is aware about the owners mentioned in the official records. The electric hub of Delhi, Bhagirath Place, established in 1965, is spread over eight acres of land and records over Rs 10 crore business per day. But hardly 10 per cent traders of over 5,000 shoppers pay tax to the corporation.
For instance, property number 1891-97/II, Bhagirath Place owned by Beni Prasad, Badri Prasad and others has an outstanding of around Rs 1.40 crore, up to 2003-04. The department has not even assessed the tax liability after 2004. Now the property has been divided into over 100 smaller shops, but there is no mention of it in the records.
As per the records, no tax has been deposited against this property since the last 40 years. Just three such properties in the area have a collective outstanding of tax around Rs 2.77 crore as tax.
Another major outstanding of Rs 1.46 crore is on property number 1488-92, Chadni Chowk, owned by Kamla Devi. The officers claimed to have sent notices to the owner, but she never turned up. The property is now neither traceable by the officer concerned nor by the local cops.
‘Most properties in the area have been divided and sold several times over. So, it is difficult to locate them and find out the exact owner,’ said a senior officer of the property tax department of NDMC.
As per 123 D of MCD Act, an assessment of the property tax should be done where a return on the basis of self-assessment is not filed. The corporation can also revise the assessment if less tax has been submitted.
‘The market is an evidence of apathy of municipal corporation, as no civic facility has been provided here. Hardly 10 per cent of the electric traders pay tax to the corporation and only 1,700 of them are registered with our association,’ said Dinesh Mittal, General Secretary of Delhi Electricity Traders Association [DETA].