Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has identified around 250 private schools that have allegedly evaded property tax that totals to nearly seven crore rupees, a senior GMC official said. The biggest defaulter amongst them is a reputed institute in the Assam capital — it has pending property tax dues of around Rs 1 crore, the official said.
"We have identified around 250 defaulting private schools in Guwahati. Some schools do not even have the preliminary permission to operate, forget about property tax. They just opened it in one building and have been running it for years," the official said. The GMC has begun slapping notices on the schools asking them to pay the dues within a month.
Another senior GMC official said that the municipal body is looking to investigate how these private schools evaded taxes for many years. "We started sending notice-cum-bills to these schools from last week. So far, around 50 schools have been served notices and some of them have already paid the tax," he added.
The official said that many of the schools are still trying to evade their pending taxes by asserting that they are either religious or charitable institutions. The GMC has given one month time to every school to reply to the notices or pay the pending dues, failing to which punitive action will be initiated against the management of these institutes.
