The municipal corporation has already collected Rs 24.5crore as property tax during this fiscal, surpassing the last year's figure of Rs 21crore. The MC is, however, expecting to cross the figure of Rs 30crore by the end of March as half of the units are yet to deposit the tax.
Over two lakh units have been identified by the MC for property tax and nearly 78,000 units have deposited the tax so far. A large section of businessmen and traders is at loggerheads with the state government demanding reduction in property tax and are yet to deposit it.
The MC has planned to collect the tax at all the 39 branches of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) and will start operation from March 1. A workshop of bank officials, going to deal with this work, was organised here on Saturday at the main branch of the bank in which officials from the MC gave information about the various parameters required to compute property tax. "A help desk will be set up in all the branches of the bank where forms, in different colours for residential and commercial properties, will be available. Bank officials have been provided with comprehensive information about the area-wise collector rates and other parameters," commissioner Manprit Singh Chhatwal said.
Earlier, the MC had roped in HDFC Bank for facilitating the people to deposit the property tax using their debit/ credit cards. A facility for online deposit of property tax has also been provided by the MC which has got overwhelming response as Rs 1.15 crore have been collected as online deposit, MC officials claimed.
The state government had extended the last date of paying property tax with 10percent rebate till March 31. "With the launch of property tax collection at PNB branches, the people will now have 45 different windows (39 branches of the bank, 5 zonal offices of MC and the main office of MC) for depositing property tax," Chhatwal said.
Earlier, the MC had roped in HDFC Bank for facilitating the people to deposit the property tax using their debit/ credit cards. A facility for online deposit of property tax has also been provided by the MC which has got overwhelming response as Rs 1.15 crore have been collected as online deposit, MC officials claimed.
The state government had extended the last date of paying property tax with 10percent rebate till March 31. "With the launch of property tax collection at PNB branches, the people will now have 45 different windows (39 branches of the bank, 5 zonal offices of MC and the main office of MC) for depositing property tax," Chhatwal said.
"The online payment of property tax, introduced by us is also a hassle-free service and is the best accessible mechanism provided to the people. However, still there are people who have no access to the facility, so, for their convenience, we have roped in PNB," said Chhatwal. The MC is also undertaking a survey of properties and the data related to each house is being collected. The data would be uploaded online on the MC site for the information of the public, the commissioner revealed.