No record of covered area of houses with UT Admn, MC

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

While the UT Administration has imposed house tax on residential properties in the city, the Administration and the Municipal Corporation (MC) do not have the record of covered area of houses in the city.

Sources said the Administration and the MC would rely on self-declaration of house tax by property owners. Though MC Commissioner Bhawna Garg yesterday claimed that they would soon start a survey to prepare a data of the covered area of properties, the sources said it would be a time-consuming task. The Estate Office had data of properties, but it was not readily available, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the MC is planning to provide a rebate of 10 per cent to house owners who pay the tax within three months of the issuance of the notification. The MC will also provide the facility to pay house tax at e-Sampark Centres, an MC official said.

With the notification, the UT Administration has hiked the house tax rates by over 15 times the tax amount imposed in 2013. The new house tax rates are almost on a par with those in Punjab and Haryana.

The notification reads, “The Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, in exercise of the powers conferred under Sub-Section (5) of Section 90 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, as extended to the Union Territory, Chandigarh, by the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994, ordered that the MC shall impose property tax on residential land and buildings under the provisions of Section 90 (1) (a) of the Act falling within its limits commencing from the assessment year 2015-16 except for any residential house/flat having an area less than 500 sq ft”.

A senior UT official said residential houses situated in colonies and villages under the municipal limits will be exempted from house tax. Even government land and buildings are exempted from making payment of tax, but such land and buildings are liable to make payment of service charges at the rate of 75 per cent of the tax calculated in their respective zones.

Recently, UT Administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki and UT Adviser Vijay Kumar Dev had suggested to impose house tax on city residents.