Property tax: Amritsar MC tells 10 hotels to submit self-assessment documents

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 2

The municipal corporation (MC) today issued notices to 10 hotels in the walled city area to submit documents in order to scrutinise their self-assessment of property tax. Officials of the MC suspect that a large number of hotels in the walled city area are paying less than their actual dues by submitting wrong information in self-assessment of the property tax.

The main objective of the move is to enhance the revenue of the MC. Officials suspect that most hotels in the walled city area are operating on lease or rent. But to save tax, owners claim that they have self-occupied hotel premises. As per property tax rules, if an owner occupies his building and operates a hotel from the premises himself, then the MC collects tax as per the size and covered area of the property. In case of rented or leased hotels, the MC collects 7.5 per cent property tax from its owners.

The MC started issuing notices to owners as it wants to maintain record of hotels. Officials of the civic body have asked hotel owners to submit registered documents of their property, lease and rent deeds, income tax and GST returns and previous property tax receipts.

The notices were issued to 10 hotels after the MC Secretary held a meeting with field superintendents.

Sushant Bhatia, MC Secretary, said, “We have sent notices to 10 hotels to provide all documents for the scrutiny of their self-assessment for the property tax. After checking documents, we will assess their actual tax dues and send notices to them if any anomaly is found. Besides hotels, other properties will also be checked. Municipal Commissioner Harpreet Singh has instructed officials to collect data of all properties in a time bound manner.”

Officials claimed that the MC was earning much less property tax due to such ongoing practices.