Drummers to harry tax evaders

New Delhi, February 1:

Better pay your property tax quickly or the dholwalla (drummer) will be at your doorstop to announce the evasion to the whole world! For, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has resorted to sending drummers to help collect property tax from thousands of defaulters in the national capital.

“When they have not responded to our notice to pay taxes, we have to send dholwallas to beat drums in front of the house of th-ose defaulters. And it looks like a safe bet,” said Deep Mathur, chief spokesperson of the MCD.

“In the last two weeks, over 100 defaulters have paid their tax and we will continue our drive. But if defaulters still do not respond to it, MCD will auction their properties.”

“It’s really a prelude to the ultimate decision. It’s a huge embarrassment for defaulters to see drummers announcing their name, that too for a wrong reason, in public.” The MCD has so far collected a tax of Rs 4.66 billion Indian Currency (IC) as aga-inst a target of Rs 13.5 billion IC.

“Though it will not be possible to collect the remaining amount in the next two months, before the financial year ends, the achievable target could be around Rs 10 billion IC,” he added.

There are over 100,000 property tax defaulters under the MCD jurisdiction. So far MCD has visited several areas in the central and south zone and efforts are on to send teams of drummers to all th-e 12 zones. Authorities from each zone accompanied by dholwallas are forming special squads.

Dholwallas have already paid a visit to Nehru Place, Central Market in Lajpat Nagar, Kalkaji, Malviya Nagar and Dayanand Colony, and Greater Kailash.