Guwahati, Dec 13 (PTI) The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has identified around 250 private schools, including reputed ones, located in the Assam capital, that have allegedly evaded property tax totalling crores of rupees, an official said.
The biggest defaulter among them is a reputable institute which has pending property tax dues of around Rs 1 crore, a senior GMC official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
The GMC has begun slapping notices on the schools asking them to pay the dues within a month.
“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.
Another senior GMC official said the municipal body is looking to investigate how these private schools evaded taxes for many years.
The total tax dues are to the tune of Rs seven crore.
“We started sending notice-cum-bills to these schools from last week. So far, around 50 schools have been served the notices and some of them have already paid the tax,” he added.
The official said many of the schools are still trying to evade the 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 which punitive action will be initiated against the management of the institutes.