Owing to the non-payment of house and property tax from last seven years, the municipal corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) will seal Saheed Bhagat Singh Interstate Bus Terminal. It has been learned that Punjab Roadways has received a notice in this regard from municipal corporation Jalandhar (MCJ) for being one of the biggest property tax defaulters in the city.
Officials in the property tax department informed that the inter state bus terminal (ISBT) Jalandhar records an outstanding property tax of Rs 5.5 crore, out of which around four crore is the pending building tax amount from 2010 till 2013.
As per information the rest Rs 1.5 crore is the property tax defaulting amount.
Officials in the Punjab Roadways informed, “The Jalandhar ISBT was constructed on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis by Madhav Group in 2005.”
The bus stand was completed in 2007 and transferred to Punjab Roadway on January 25, 2015. Even though the private company had generated revenue from the shops situated there and other resources, but they still failed to pay the tax.
Rajiv Rishi superintendent, property tax department informed, “If the department fails to pay the defaulting amount, we will move forward with the sealing procedure.” Officials informed that previously also notices have been served to the department but to no avail.
The deputy commissioner, with an outstanding house tax of Rs 45 lakh, has been sent the sealing notice.
Likewise, another local bodies department that has been served notice from the civic body here is Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT). So far the property tax department has recovered Rs 21 crore from different departments.
For the financial year 2016-17, the MC has targeted to achieve Rs 30 crore as property tax revenue. Meanwhile, Maninder Pal Singh, general manager, Punjab Roadways Jalandhar 1 said that their own audit team is cross checking the defaulting amount as claimed by MCJ and that it will take few more days. “We will make the payment as per our records of the outstanding amount,” said Singh.
