Civic body to issue Rs 24 crore property tax notice to six Chandigarh department divisions

CHANDIGARH: With Rs 24 crore property tax outstanding against the UT administration, the tax department of the municipal corporation (MC) is ready to send separate tax notices to all six divisions of the engineering department of the UT instead of just one, which was the practice earlier.

Though all these divisions are of the engineering department and the tax has to be paid by the department only, the UT wants the civic body to issue separate notices. This because the control or jurisdiction of the buildings falls under different divisions.

“The CP-3 division of the UT, which deals with the maintenance works of the buildings, used to make tax payments earlier. But it has asked to prepare separate notices of all the divisions, citing many buildings don’t fall under it. The matter was discussed at the senior level in the UT too. It has now forced the MC to prepare notices to six divisions, CP-1 to CP-6,” an official in the MC said.

“Significantly, the move comes when all the divisions of the engineering departments are being controlled and supervised by top bosses of the engineering department. But since the decision has been taken by senior officers following a meeting, we are left with no option but to prepare details division-wise,” sources said.

The administration owes a huge amount in property tax. “We have been raising the issue of payment of property tax with the administration for many years. Though the UT has paid the amount earlier and in reconciliation of the tax amount, it was decreased also but still a big amount is pending. We are hopeful that the UT will make the payment soon, sources said.

The tax branch of the MC has already started sending property tax notices to the defaulters of both commercial and residential properties. They had failed to make the payment during the rebate period from April to June. Out of a total around 1.20 lakh taxpayers, around 80,000 paid their property tax in the three months. The defaulters will have to pay 25% penalty and 12% interest amount on the tax.