Gurgaon: As many as 5,390 property ID objections and applications are pending with MCG, with 51% (2,740) of these cases still stuck at the civic body’s level itself, leaving thousands of property owners waiting for their records to be corrected and information on their property tax bills.Another 1,764 objections (32.7%) relating to existing property IDs have been returned to residents for additional documents or clarifications before they can be processed further and are pending at the residents’ level.The problem extends to fresh property ID creation as well. Of the 886 new property ID applications pending, 585 are awaiting action by MCG, while 301 have been sent back to applicants for additional information. For every pending case, a homeowner is stuck waiting for a correction in the official records, which are used to calculate property tax and serve as the primary municipal record for their property.Data also suggests that the correction exercise is slowing down at multiple stages. While MCG is yet to act on more than half the total cases, over 2,000 applications have already been scrutinised once and returned to residents for additional clarifications, prolonging a process that many homeowners say has become tedious and time-consuming.The pendency comes despite repeated drives by MCG to clean up the database. RWAs and property owners have repeatedly flagged cases involving duplicate property IDs, incorrect categorisation of residential and commercial properties, faulty ownership records, and erroneous tax calculations on the basis of incorrect plot size, forcing thousands to seek corrections.“There are around 80 to 100 clerks handling property tax objections and applications across all eight zones of the city, and each clerk receives at least 30 to 40 objection files every day. As a result, the pendency is high. Moreover, the state govt has extended the property tax rebate deadline till Aug 31, prompting many property owners to rectify or self-certify their property details,” said a taxation department official.It was in May this year that the civic body transferred 134 clerks from its property tax branch following serious allegations of corruption, file tampering, and collusion with brokers. The action was ordered after mounting complaints from residents accusing officials of deliberately stalling applications, arbitrarily cancelling files, and forcing applicants into dealing with middlemen to get their work cleared.According to officials, many of the clerks remained posted in the same branch for nearly a decade, creating what insiders describe as an entrenched network operating with little oversight. For the first time in 10 years, these employees were removed from their positions and reassigned to other departments across the corporation. Clerks from sanitation, engineering, establishment, and other branches were brought into the property tax department.
