MC never assessed property tax in its vicinity: RTI

While the civic body could have earned a revenue in crores, it seems to have adopted a pick and choose policy for the assessment of property tax in the city.

The information came to light after RTI activist Ravi Sharma filed an application seeking to know the house tax in this particular block of the city.

In its reply, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has stated that only a 'partial assessment of the block was done in year 1999-2000' and has even added that during this assessment, only particular areas were chosen and not the entire block.

The Municipal Corporation has also not revealed the details of the areas it has surveyed and has refused to provide the names of the staff members who were responsible for the tax collection. Zone A has the maximum number of 15 blocks as compared to the other four zones.

Sources in the house tax department confirmed that had the Ludhiana civic body conducted a proper assessment of all the buildings in block 2 of Zone A, it could have earned revenue in crores.

City divided into eight tax zones

Even as the Municipal Corporation has failed to assess house tax near its own headquarters, a meeting was held on Monday at the civic body's Zone A office to 'finalise a plan of dividing the city into eight zones to assess property tax with greater efficiency.'

As per a decision taken in the meeting, attended by the local bodies director A K Sinha, Ludhiana Municipal Corporation commissioner R K Verma, MLA Surinder Dabur and Bharat Bhushan Ashoo, the city has been divided into eight zones with the most expensive areas falling in Zone A while the least expensive in Zone H.

"Once the zones are finalised, we will have 30 days period, during which, the Ludhiana MC will invite suggestions and then property tax collection will start," said a source, who was present in the meeting.

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