News: Gurugram civic body took up to two years to process property IDs for taxes, finds audit-14-06-2023
: The civic body took as much as one to two years to process applications for property IDs, though the rules mandate that it should do so in just ten days, an audit by MCG’s taxation department has found.
Property IDs are identification numbers used by residents to pay taxes. They are also required for execution of a sale deed.
The audit was carried out by the office of the principal accountant general (audit) for records between October 4, 2021, and January 12, 2022. In zone 1, MCG received 1,219 applications to create property IDs, of which 569 were created, 456 rejected and 194 were under consideration as of October 2021. The time taken to process 845 IDs ranged anywhere between 11 days and 581 days (one year and seven months).
The city is divided into four zones for better governance. Zone 1 includes parts of Gurgaon to the west of Delhi-Jaipur highway such as Sectors 7, 9B, 10A and 36
The Haryana Right to Service Act, 2014, states that an application has to be processed within ten days
Similarly, in zone 4, MCG received 1,859 applications, of which 1,266 IDs were created, 390 applications were rejected, and the remaining 203 cases were under process as of October 2021. The time taken in processing of 951 IDs was between 11 and 763 days (over two years). This zone includes South City-2, Rosewood City, Badshapur, and sectors 50, 58, 59, 60-75, 75A and 76
“In this regard, reasons for such inordinate delay were not found in records. Further, the reasons for rejection in case of rejected applications were not communicated to the applicants. Moreover, on being enquired about delivery of services as per the provisions of Haryana Right to Service Act, it came to notice that no orders/instructions were issued to the concerned wing. However, on the objection raised by the audit, MCG issued an office order on 25 November 2021 to ensure the delivery of various services in a time bound manner in compliance with said Act,” read the special audit report.
The report did not mention applications for zones 2 and 3 in the city. “In some cases, delays by applicants in submitting documents is one of the reasons for the time taken to process applications. We have, now improved the system and rigorously reviewed the applications. No such applications are pending as of today. The joint commissioners have been made in-charge to review these applications. Moreover, we have been regularly holding camps so that such pendency is not reported,” MCG commissioner PC Meena told TOI on Tuesday.
The report also noted that 50,415 temporary IDs were created in 2021 and 2022 after 16 more villages were brought under MCG’s jurisdiction. The tax assessment for these properties with temporary IDs amounted to Rs 14.9 crore, but the urban local bodies (ULB) department has received Rs 11.3 crore, the audit said.
