Tax holiday over, MC starts collection

PANCHKULA: Two-year tax holiday for those running commercial and industrial units is soon going to end as Panchkula municipal council, which failed to recover property tax from these units, has started the exercise to collect the same. There are 5,000 units, including commercial and industrial which fall under the MC limit, who have not paid tax of last two years.
MC officials are claiming that with the collection of tax of two years they would become richer by Rs 8 crore.MC president Ravinder Rawal has directed the staff to prepare the list and thereafter issue notice to all defaulters.
Also from the past two years, post of MC president was under litigation and it was only last month when Rawal was again appointed. Moreover, during these two years there was another legal tangle regarding the status of Panchkula MC ' it was converted into corporation and then HC quashed the notification and it was again back to council. Sources said due to all these things, civic body failed to send the notices and collect property tax from these units.
Rawal said, ''I will soon convene a meeting and besides other issues, this matter will also be discussed.''
It is worth mentioning here that earlier MC was collecting the property tax on the basis of data compiled in 2001. But later they realized that they were losing revenue worth crores, due to the old survey, and finally in January 2009 appointed a Panchkula-based private agency to compile fresh data.
According to MC officials, in the year 2007-08 MC authorities had collected Rs 3 crore, 96 lakh as revenue from property tax. In the following year 2008-09, MC earned Rs 3 crore, 30 lakh from property tax in Panchkula.
Industrialist Rakesh Mehta said, ''MC has failed to provide better civic amenities in Panchkula. How can they claim property tax, when they have not maintained their part of the deal?''