PMC to charge 12% interest from house tax defaulters

Prayagraj: In a bid to recover long-pending house taxes, the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation (PMC) has prepared a list of defaulters from whom it will charge 12% interest on unpaid dues from the new financial year under Section 221 of the Nagar Nigam Act.

According to PMC chief tax officer (CTO) PK Dwivedi, the corporation had nearly 33,000 residential and commercial buildings with pending tax payments last year. However, before the end of the financial year 2024-25, nearly 13,000 bills were cleared.

The PMC has categorised defaulters based on the amount of unpaid bills, with nearly 450 residents having unpaid bills exceeding Rs 1 lakh. In most cases, unpaid bills are linked to property disputes.

To ensure timely payment from govt departments, the PMC is preparing a separate section in its records. Specific formats for different govt departments are being developed, and meetings will be held with departmental heads to ensure that outstanding tax payments are cleared within deadline.

"We will try to ensure that govt departments make payments within the first quarter of the year," Dwivedi said.

The PMC is also corresponding with senior officials of the power department, which has 14 additional buildings that were not taxed earlier.

Meanwhile, Prayagraj has secured 14th position in revenue collection among 17 bodies of Uttar Pradesh. Mathura Nagar Nigam has secured first position with an increase of 106% in the financial year 2024-25. Prayagraj secured 14th position with an increase of 29% by collecting Rs 327.83 crore as compared to total income of Rs 255 crore in financial year 2023-24.

Officials say that due to Maha Kumbh, recovery was affected from Dec 15 to March 5. But in next year's ranking, PMC will be included in the top five bodies.

A detailed statement of the income earned in 2023-24 and financial year 2024-25 has been released. In which the ranking has been given through percentage wise increase in total income. In this, Mathura secured the first position with an increase of 106 % with an income of Rs 88.41 crore in the year 2024-25 as compared to Rs 43 crore in the financial year 2023-24.

Similarly, Jhansi increased its income from Rs 47 cr to Rs 88.83 cr and Ghaziabad went ahead from Rs 335 crore to Rs 608.89 crore.

Both the cities increased their total income in the financial year 2024-25 by 72-72% as compared to the financial year 2023-24. Jhansi got the second position and Ghaziabad got the third position. Similarly, Ayodhya got the fourth position by increasing its income by 55% from Rs 36 crores to Rs 55.81 crore.