Wrong Tax Assessment: Ludhiana Municipal Corporation issues Rs 3 Crore notice to Private Hospital

Ludhiana: Taking action against the defaulters for paying wrong property tax, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has recently served a notice worth Rs 3 crore to a private hospital in Ludhiana.

The process of recovery of the money that the hospital owes to the Municipal Corporation for wrong tax assessment will commence after the hospital appears for a hearing before the MC joint commissioner Poonampreet Kaur, adds TOI.

This issuance of notice is a part of the ongoing drive against defaulters who did not pay the tax amount properly. In fact, at least 100 hospitals and nursing homes belonging to MC zone D have been issued with notices worth Rs 1.25 crore. Out of this amount, Rs 40 lakh has been recovered as well.

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Previously Hindustan Times had reported that the municipal corporation officials had penalised 21 hospitals for tax related issues. Those hospitals, which did not pay property tax since 2013-14, allegedly owed the municipal corporation an amount of Rs 81 lakh including the unpaid tax and a 100% penalty on the amount.

The daily had reported that the defaulting hospitals belong to Zone D of the MC and they are located on Model Town-Jawaddi Road, Model Town, Model Town Extension, Gurdev Nagar, and Harnam Nagar among other areas.

While MC officials had scrutinised the property tax returns of around 100 hospitals, 60 hospitals were yet to be probed. Although the members of IMA Ludhiana urged the MC officials to grant relief to the hospital, who were allegedly unfamiliar with the process of calculating the tax, the officials did not agree. They pointed out that the rules have been set by the State Government itself.

Speaking to HT, an MC official had said, "Property tax is paid on self-assessment basis. To evade tax, hospitals have not been filing tax returns as per the norms since property tax was imposed by the state government in 2013-14. Many hospitals have given certain portions of their premises on rent, but are filing tax under the non-residential category. Under the non-residential category, the building owner has to pay a tax of ₹6 per feet for the ground floor, and ₹3 per feet for other floors. In case, the premises has been rented, owners must pay 7.5% of the annual rent as tax. Some owners also do not disclose the correct area of the property."

"We are still scrutinising the property tax returns filed by hospital owners. A 100% penalty has been imposed on the hospitals and notices have been served. A few of the hospital owners have already paid their dues, and the penalty will be recovered from others in the coming days," MC zonal commissioner, Zone D, Jasdev Sekhon had added in this context.

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, recently the civic body has issued notice worth Rs 3 crore to a private hospital in the city claiming that the hospital authorities had not paid the tax amount properly.

An official of the MC further informed the daily that in order to get hold of the defaulters who have evaded paying proper tax amount or paying tax for residential establishments despite indulging in commercial activities in the units, the MC is looking into the establishments, including hospitals, hotels, industrial units.

TOI adds that there are around 40 establishments who failed submitting any documents to the officials even after receiving notice twice.

Earlier, an MLA belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party, Gurpreet Gogi had discussed about this issue of tax defaulters at the general house meeting of the civic body on March 28. At that time, the MC had been directed to inspect the property tax returns of the hospitals.

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