Prayagraj Municipal Corporation cracks down on house tax defaulters, plans 12% interest on dues

The Prayagraj Municipal Corporation (PMC) has prepared a list of house owners and government departments that have not paid taxes for several years as part of efforts to recover its long-overdue house tax. It has also decided to 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, last year, PMC had nearly 33,000 residential and commercial buildings with pending tax payments. However, before the end of the previous financial year (2024-25), nearly 13,000 of these pending bills were cleared by building owners.

“We have defaulters in different categories, i.e., unpaid bills within ₹5,000, between ₹5,000 and ₹10,000, etc. Nearly 450 residents of the city have unpaid bills exceeding ₹one lakh. In most cases, unpaid bills are linked to property disputes,” he added.

According to the official, apart from domestic category defaulters, a separate government property section is being prepared in PMC records to ensure timely correspondence and payment collection in a time-bound manner. Specific formats for different government departments are being developed, and meetings will be held with departmental heads to ensure that outstanding tax payments are cleared within a set deadline. “In any case, we will try to ensure that government departments make payments within the first quarter of the year,” he added.

He further said that correspondence is underway with senior officials of the power department, as the number of offices and substations before Mahakumbh had increased to 65 from the earlier 51. “Hence, the power department should pay taxes on the additional 14 buildings,” the PMC official informed.