Baddi MC imposes house tax

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, November 21

The Baddi Municipal Committee (MC) has initiated a move to impose house tax on its residents.

Though the area comprises the largest hub of industries, it had been devoid of house tax, which had been imposed in all other MCs of the state.

The Baddi MC, which was earlier a Nagar Panchayat, had come under the purview of the Urban Development Department in 2009. Local politicians had remained instrumental in delaying the implementation of this tax, but the MC officials had to work out its execution in view of the directions of the Ministry of Urban Development.

House tax is being collected from the Arki Nagar Panchayat for several years even though it is not an MC.

Ajmer Singh, Executive Officer, Baddi MC, while confirming the news, said an estimated annual income of Rs 5 crore would be earned through this tax, which would help in sprucing up the civic amenities. He said more funds would be available for maintaining roads, parks and other infrastructure.

The nine wards of the Baddi MC have been divided into four zones comprising non-concrete houses, concrete houses, semi-constructed houses and commercial and industrial establishments. A major chunk was supposed to be generated from the commercial and industrial houses as a higher tax structure was applicable on them vis-à-vis other categories.

He said the process of furnishing house tax had begun. There were 9,000 units with a population of 29,911 in the entire MC, with 7,000 units comprising houses. The remaining 2,000 are shops and industrial units, he said.

The Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Development Authority (BBNDA) has also woken up to collect the tax from the 2,000 industrial units of the remaining area.

Chief Executive Officer of the BBNDA Lalit Jain said their target was to collect an annual revenue of Rs 5 crore to Rs 8 crore from industrial units, including hotels, stone crushers and brick kilns, operating in the area. Tax varying from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 lakh would be generated from each unit at the rate of Rs 2 per square metre. He said the Chief Minister had given his consent for imposing the tax, following which its nitty-gritty was worked out.