MC mulls over taxing professionals in city

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

The Municipal Corporation (MC) is considering to impose tax on professionals in the city.

Sources said professional tax was one of the 20 new taxes proposed in the internal draft paper prepared by the MC to increase its revenue to tide over the financial crisis. Sources said the draft paper would be placed before the MC House in its next meeting.

Besides professional tax, the MC has also proposed to levy user charges for all services being provided free of cost or on subsidised rates at present. It has also proposed to revise the water and sewerage charges to overcome the loss being incurred on its operation and maintenance. 

The paper stressed on the need for rationalisation of the staff to curtail salary expenditure, which is one of the major committed liabilities of the civic body. At present, the MC pays Rs 45 crore as salary and pension. Further, it has been proposed to increase the property tax rates on a regular basis and link it with the collector's rate to make it more buoyant.

Sources said professional tax was one of the recommendations of the third finance commission of Chandigarh but the MC had been ignoring its imposition. In the draft paper, the MC stated that the tax was the need of the hour. Many states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and West Bengal have already imposed it and fetching urban local bodies handsome revenue.

A group of couuncillors had also proposed imposing the levy on the pattern of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation after they visited the city a few years ago.

Sources said the paper proposed the tax according to the income of professionals. All advocates, doctors, consultants, architects, engineers, chartered accountants, tour and travel operators, contractors, those giving tuitions and tutorials and other professionals would come under the ambit of the levy. 

Employees drawing salaries and wages may have to pay professional tax between Rs 80 and Rs 200 per month.

What else civic body’s draft paper proposes

• Green tax on commercial vehicles 
• Cow cess to manage stray cattle in the city
• Entertainment tax on multiplexes and discotheques
• Charges for maintaining greenery, parks
• Hike in property tax, advertisement fee and water charges by 25 per cent 
• Recovery of user charges from owners who have developed gardens outside their houses
• Charges for parking on MC land in front of houses and dwelling units having more than one vehicle
• Monthly entry fee at major gardens on the pattern of Rock Garden
• Charges for commercial use of bhavans
• Commercial property tax on all rental properties 
• Fee for school buses parked on MC land 
• Need to revise transfer fees for the Estate office 
• Converting free parking into paid facilities
• Cess on petrol 
• Revise the rates of community centres and open spaces 
• Fire cess of Rs 50 per household