Curation Team
GURUGRAM: Taxes collected by MCG from property owners in 2024-2025 neither met its target, which was lower than previous years, nor did it equal the amount gathered the year before.
According to data, the corporation collected Rs 240 crore as property tax, meeting 80% of its projected revenue of Rs 300 crore for the last fiscal year.
This is despite the municipal corporation cutting down its targeted revenue from property taxes to Rs 300 crore in FY25 from Rs 500 crore in the FY24.
MCG’s earnings from properties — which forms the largest chunk of revenue for the corporation in the city — was also 5% lower than Rs 254 crore collected as tax in 2023-24.
Asked why property tax fell in the last fiscal year, an MCG official from the taxation department said there were two major reasons for this dip.
“One primary reason is discrepancies in property tax data, which we are rectifying consistently. However, it is a major challenge since crucial data such as name and property addresses are incorrect in several cases, preventing property owners from settling their dues. Moreover, residents were waiting for a rebate. However, no rebate was announced from Sept 2024 till date, so that is another factor,” he said on Tuesday.
Property ID, which is a must for filing ttaxes, refers to a unique number assigned to every property under MCG’s jurisdiction.
In 2022, a database of properties in the city was created, and IDs were assigned, but the information was peppered with errors, prompting owners to raise objections. Of 6.9 lakh registered properties in Gurgaon, objections were received from at least 3.6 lakh property owners.
The corporation started clearing the backlog in resolving property ID objections in the past few months, getting them down from 11,029 late last year to 3,135 till March 26 this year.
Officials said that there aren’t a lot of property ID objections pending, but most of the discrepancies were rectified this year, leaving too little time for owners to file their taxes.
They had told TOI that the corporation expects to clear all objections by the end of April.
Apart from paying the tax, property IDs are needed for documentation such as registries, and ownership transfers, etc.
MCG commissioner Ashok Kumar Garg iterated on Tuesday that it is mandatory under the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act of 1994 to annually deposit taxes for all types of properties — residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and vacant plots within municipal limits.
“Property tax is assessed from April 1 to March 31 each year, and payment must be made by March 31. Failure to pay on time results in an 18% annual interest rate, and defaulting properties may be sealed and auctioned,” Garg said.
Barring FY25, MCG has increased its property tax revenue over the past few years. Collection was Rs 165 crore in 2021-22. It went up 11% to Rs 186 crore in 2022-23 and increased 36% to touch Rs 254 crore in FY24.
Last year, MCG officials had said they were revising their target for property taxes to make them more “realistic”. For instance, in FY22 and FY23, property tax estimates were higher than Rs 1,000 crore, while actual collection was less than one-fifth of this target.
The civic body, in its proposed budget for the new fiscal year (2025-26), has projected its overall income at Rs 14,500 crore, 8.5% lower than FY25’s anticipated revenue of Rs 1,576.9 crore.
The civic corporation, meanwhile, has kept its estimate for property tax the same, at Rs 300 crore, for the new FY, though it expects to increase earnings from stamp duty collections, advertisements, and building plan approvals.
