Patna, Feb. 14: The civic body is set to take action against big holding tax defaulters and may even snap services to them.

Officials in Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) said a list of defaulters had been prepared and the corporation was initiating action against them under PMC Act, 1951. The officials added that final notices to the defaulters were also being issued.

Sources in the revenue department said a centralised data of tax defaulters from all four administrative circles of the civic body has been prepared for the first time.

Major tax defaulters, most of which are in the New Capital Circle of PMC, owe over Rs 360 crore to the municipal corporation as outstanding holding taxes.

“We have been serving notices to the tax defaulters, but to no avail. We will now initiate action under sections 204, 205 and 206 of the PMC Act, 1951 which empowers us to stop providing civic services to the defaulters,” Sheshank Shekhar Sinha, executive officer of New Capital Circle, told The Telegraph.

PMC has also written a letter to the urban development department asking it to expedite notification of rules of Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, so that property of the tax defaulters could be attached.

The official also said the recent amendment to Bihar Municipal Act, 2007, empowers the civic body to attach the property and seize bank accounts of defaulters if they do not pay civic taxes. The law department, however, is yet to clear the provision.

Sinha added that other major tax defaulters include Patna University, AN College, hotel Chanakya, Samrat International hotel, Parijat Complex, Abhaya Bhavan and other government buildings in old Patna.

According to figures, Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) is the biggest tax defaulter and owes over Rs 208 crore to the corporation. There are 227 buildings of BSEB, including its headquarters on Bailey Road, residential buildings in BSEB Colony and guesthouses.

The power board has not been paying taxes to PMC for the past 31 years, a civic body official alleged. The corporation had slapped a notice on the board about two months ago. “But there has been no response from the board as yet,” the official added.

Mayor Afzal Imam said: “We have now written a letter to the urban development department asking them to intervene in the BSEB matter.”

According to PMC norms, holding tax rate is Rs 54 per sqft for commercial establishments on main roads and Rs 18 per sqft on main roads for residential buildings.

At present, there are about 1.2 lakh tax defaulters in the city while the number of holdings falling under the corporation area stands at 1.8 lakh.

About two months ago, senior corporation officials had come up with a new initiative. Under the experiment, sanitation workers, with waste carts, were accompanying tax collectors to shops and buildings from where holding taxes have to be collected.

“Collecting civic taxes from people is a challenge and as there is no provision for legal action against defaulters in the state presently. Hence we are coming up with these experiments to build pressure on residents,” Sinha added.