Be ready to shell out more on residential and commercial property tax as the general house of Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) on Monday approved a 20% hike in property tax for the new financial year. With this, the civic body is expected to earn Rs 5 crore more from tax collected on residential and commercial properties.
The property tax charges on residential properties have been revised for the first time since its imposition in 2014, while last year the MC increased the commercial property tax by 10%.
According to the records of the tax branch of the MC, the city has around 80,000 residential and 26,000 commercial properties, falling under the tax ambit. As per records, the current income generated by collecting tax from both commercial and residential properties is around Rs 35 crore, which is expected to increase to Rs 40 crore from the new financial year, starting from April 1, 2020.
The MC has collected tax worth Rs 46 crore (approx) during the current financial year, including arrears of past years.
While describing the agenda regarding the hike, the officers of the tax branch of the MC revealed that Chandigarh has been incurring the lowest tax from both residential and commercial properties as compared to their neighbouring cities Mohali and Panchkula. “The 20% hike will not affect people much and it is quite a small amount,” said Anil Garg, additional municipal commissioner, who also heads the MC’s tax branch.
City mayor Rajesh Kumar said that the increased amount is very less and won’t affect taxpayers much. Former city mayor and BJP councillor Arun Sood and other BJP councillors also supported the move.
Cong opposes move
Congress councillors opposed the move by terming it unjustified. While BJP councillors and city mayor said that the hike is very less and won’t affect people on large scale. “There was no need to increase the tax at all,” said Devinder Singh Babla, leader of opposition and Congress councillor. Nominated municipal councillor Charanjeev Singh also opposed the hike.