Amritsar: Commercial buildings with basement to pay more tax

After the notification of the Punjab Minor Mineral Rules, urban bodies, Municipal Councils, Improvement Trust and PUDA will levy a tax at the rate of Rs 5 per square foot on those commercial buildings which are equipped with a basement.

The district has less than 100 buildings having a basement and a majority of them are using it for parking purposes.

Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said officials working in the urban development bodies, including the Municipal Corporation, Improvement Trust and PUDA, should carry out a survey on the number of commercial buildings with basement in their areas before collecting the revenue. She said residential houses have been exempted, so all the departments should ensure that this fee is collected in case of basements in commercial installations. The revenue collected will be paid to the Mining Department.

In addition, the state government is preparing a supplementary district survey report for which all the Sub-Divisional Magistrates, District Revenue Officers and Block Development and Panchayat Officers (BDPOs) can give government land or panchayat-held land to the Mining Department. This land can become an additional source of income for the panchayats and related departments.

The Deputy Commissioner said that panchayats and government departments in riverside areas like Ajnala, Baba Bakala Sahib, Lopoke and others should create their own source of income by giving their land to the Mining Department.

Proprietors of commercial installations with a basement said the directions would increase their cost of input as they were already paying a host of taxes in the form of property tax, sewerage maintenance charges, power tariff and others.