NEW DELHI: The BJP Delhi Pradesh president, Harsh Vardhan, has demanded that the Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi recover arrears of Rs 4,500 crore in property tax from various Government departments and spend the amount on improvement of infrastructure in Delhi.

In a statement, Dr. Vardhan has criticised the MCD for failing to recover such a big amount and charged that the Delhi Government is bent upon making the Corporation pauper by not making its departments pay up their dues.

The Delhi BJP president said property tax to the tune of over Rs 100 crore was yet to be recovered from the private power companies, which are deliberately avoiding payment of this. Alleging that there is connivance between the Delhi Government and the MCD on the issue, he said the power companies are acting against the public interests in the case of paying Government dues. On the other hand, he said, should a power consumer delay payment or even go out of station without depositing the power bill amount in advance, these companies waste no time in cutting the connection.

The major organisation which are yet to pay their property tax dues, as per Dr. Vardhan, are Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Transport Corporation, Public Works Department, Delhi University, various colleges affiliated to it, Indraprastha University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, several petrol pumps of Indian Oil and many Government and non-Government hospitals. Even some institutions and undertakings of Delhi Government and MCD have to pay property taxes, he added.

The BJP leader said if this amount is recovered and spent on the development of Delhi then the transport system of Delhi can become really advanced. Noting that MCD has many stringent laws to recover arrears of revenue, he said it is unfortunate that while the Corporation orders bulldozers to be run on the tenements of poor people, it becomes powerless against the Government departments.

Some times ago the MCD had seized the accounts of a five star hotel to recover property tax of Rs 9 crores and now he said similar steps were need to make the Government departments pay up. ``If a common man does not deposit property tax then the Corporation uses its right to imprison that person, but why is it so kind to the Government departments,'' he wondered.

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