Dues paid but AMC tax department seals school

In a case of sheer negligence on the part of the tax department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), a team from the department on Wednesday sealed a property despite the property tax for it already having been paid.

Located on Ashram Road, a Nutan Fellowship high school had a few years of property tax due. They had paid Rs 5.32 lakh to the tax department last year. It is still due to the current year over them.

"The school owners have approached us with their grievance. The tax department, despite the payment of dues worth Rs 5.32 lakh, has sealed the school. A few days ago, they had received a notice for tax recovery," said Badruddin Shaikh, former leader of the opposition.

"When the school authorities approached the tax office, they were informed that with the benefit of the rebate, they still have to pay Rs 1.20 lakh property tax. But then, all of a sudden,AMC has sealed the school premises stating dues of Rs 2.60 lakh," added Shaikh.

Even on the day before yesterday, several cases of properties being sealed despite payment of tax dues appeared. "The department had earlier sealed many such properties which had paid their tax in advance," Shaikh further said.

A senior official from the tax department said that each zone has been given directions to seal a minimum of 100 properties which have not paid their tax dues. "There are many properties whose tax has been due for ages and the pending amount crosses more than a crore, but the officials never seal such properties," alleged Shaikh.