Banners hung in front of defaulting properties
Mysore/Mysuru: If you are among the residents and commercial property owners who have defaulted on Property Tax, you can expect the writing to be on the wall, or, precisely, on the board in front of your house/ establishment.
Property Tax is the main and direct source of revenue to Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) and it has become a headache for the Civic Body to collect full Property Tax and it never reaches annual collection targets due to defaults and multiplying dues.
Hence, the MCC has come up with a unique ‘banner campaign’ to name and shame defaulters by putting up boards before their house along with the name of the defaulting owner, company or establishment, period of tax default and the action to be taken as per Municipal laws.
In fact, the banner contains a full-fledged notice cautioning the property owner that the Property Tax dues would be collected as per law. The MCC hopes that the board or poster would embarrass the owner and prompt him/ her to pay the dues.
MCC has been unable to recover the arrears despite sending multiple notices. Some of the properties that have defaulted payments include educational institutions, real estate developers, restaurants and even Government establishments and hostels. Property owners who have defaulted on the recent tax payment are, however, not included in the ‘banner campaign.’ The MCC staff who are fixing the banners are only targeting defaulters who have not paid up for the last 10 to 15 years.
The banner campaign is being carried out in all the nine MCC Zones and after a poster is tied to the entrance gate of the property owned by the defaulting owner, officers are clicking photos along with the property in question, building and gate for their record. After the banners are fixed, officers are visiting each defaulting owner and warning them that their water and UGD connections would be cut and the premises would be locked until the dues are cleared.
“Due to tax default, we are facing a financial burden. We will resort to sealing off buildings for not showing any intent to pay the arrears. The MCC has powers to first issue notices and also confiscate the properties in case the owners do not pay the Property Tax,” said MCC Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy. A few owners have not paid the Property Tax as they have a long-standing dispute with their tenants and these cases came to light only when the MCC teams went there to put up posters in front of their premises. Some of the defaulters have sought more time to pay the dues. “However, we have not seized anything this time. We just put up posters and have warned them against defaulting on payments again,” he added.
This post was published on November 11, 2021 6:45 pm