Gurugram, Mar 12 (IANS): The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has decided to auction 37 properties after their owners refused to pay house tax for a long period of time.

According to an official, owners of these properties have not paid house tax for more than five years and crores of rupees were pending against them.

The auction will be conducted on March 16.

The official also said if any owner came forward with the pending payments even on the day of the auction, his/her property will be released immediately.

Dinesh Kumar, Zonal Taxation Officer at the MCG, said: "We have served repeated notices to owners of these 37 properties under Section 130 of the Haryana Municipal Act 1994. But they have not approached us with the pending bills and now we have no option but to auction these sealed properties to recover dues."

These are private as well as commercial properties and many of them have not paid taxes since the formation of the MCG in 2008.

The sealing of the 37 properties had been done on different dates in this financial year. Besides, the MCG had also sealed 300 properties before releasing them after the taxes were paid.

"We have an expected budget to recover Rs 250 crore property tax for 2018-19. We are still short of Rs 65 crore as the MCG has collected only Rs 185 crore so far," Kumar said.

The official said 2 lakh residents were yet to pay property tax. Many of them had paid taxes in the previous 2-3 years. Hence, they were exempted from sealing and were only served notices for immediate payment. The MCG has also hired an outsourcing agency for the timely distribution of bills.