DP,hotels among tax defaulters who owe Rs 440 cr to civic body

Delhi Police and four five star hotels are among a number of high profile tax defaulters which have not paid their dues to the tune of Rs 440 crore to North Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The list of tax defaulters, which was made public by the NDMC today, also included Northern Railways, Delhi Development Authority and Prasar Bharati among others.
"City Park hotel in Pitampura has to pay the corporation property tax worth Rs 5.80 crore while Hotel Premiere Inn in Shalimar Bagh has to pay Rs 2.37 crore. Hotel Raddison Blue in Paschim Vihar and Hotel Crown Plaza in Rohini, Sector-10 are liable to pay property tax worth Rs. 10.62 crore and Rs 6.72 crore respectively," said Rajesh Bhatia, Chairman of NDMC's Property Tax Committee.

All of this comes to an outstanding Rs 25.51 crore from hotels alone. In addition, property tax of more than Rs 400 crore is pending against different organisations as well.
This includes Rs 7.83 crore to be paid by the Delhi Police, Rs 77.63 crore by Northern Railway and Rs 20.27 crore by Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd.
BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna are yet to pay up tax worth Rs 3.46 crore and Rs 2.88 crore. The other notable names in the list include Prasar Bharati with dues of Rs 115.37 crore and DDA with Rs. 216.99 crore, Bhatia added.

Besides dealing with tax arrears, the corporation is facing a shortage of staff which has affected the work of the department.
At present, 43 posts of Assistant Assessor and Collector, two posts of Superintendents, 30 posts of Head Clerks and Zonal Inspectors, 145 posts of Upper Division Clerks and 43 posts of Lower Division Clerks are lying vacant.