E-Paper
Chandigarh admn owes MC ₹24 crore in property tax
Property tax is one of the two major sources of revenue for the Chandigarh MC, the other being the collections from charges on water supply
The Chandigarh municipal corporation is yet to recover around ₹24 crore in outstanding property tax from the UT administration.
For the 2020-21 fiscal, the civic body had collected more than ₹61 crore against the target of ₹48 crore, which is the highest in its history. For the current fiscal, it has already collected ₹27 crore.
“Revenue from property tax could have been higher if government offices had deposited the full outstanding amount of ₹27 crore. But, the tax reconciliation process with the UT administration helped us recover an additional ₹3.6 crore. We expect the administration to deposit more of its outstanding dues in this fiscal,” an MC official said.
For the recovery of dues, the MC had had issued notices to the estate office, UT Press Trust, State Transport Authority (STA), Sector 18 hockey stadium, Sector 23 swimming pool, Sector 29 Traffic Police Lines, Sector 35 and 37 civil dispensaries, Sector 38 Government Model High School, Sector 42 sports complex, Lake Club, CLTA Tennis Stadium, roller skating rink, Karuna Sadan, Sector 11 and 19 police stations, Bal Niketan, Old Age Home, Kendriya Pustakalay, football stadium and Sector 17 bus stand among others. The departments managing these buildings have defaulted on property tax payments.
MC had also served notices to its own departments, which owed around ₹8 crore. But, after reconciliation, it was reduced to ₹3 crore, which the MC recovered.
For the cash-strapped MC, property tax is one of the two major sources of revenue, the other being the collections from charges on water supply. There are 1.40 lakh properties under the jurisdiction of the MC, of which more than 1.2 lakh are taxable.
For the 2021-22 fiscal, MC had extended the deadline to avail rebate on the payment of property tax from May 31 to June 30 amid the Covid-induced lockdown. Residential property taxpayers will get rebate of 20% and commercial property taxpayers 10%.
