Urban local bodies told to revise commercial tax

Neena Sharma

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 27

The Department of Urban Development has told all municipal corporations and other urban local bodies to revise commercial tax on all private buildings to raise their income. The municipal corporations and other urban local bodies have not revised for several years commercial tax being levied on private buildings and properties falling under their ambit.

“Instead of revising commercial tax periodically, officials of municipal corporations and other urban local bodies are levying taxes on the basis of the assessment done 15 years ago. For example, 15 villages were included in Dehradun after it became a municipal corporation, but the urban body is yet to levy commercial tax on all private buildings in these villages,” said DS Garbyal, Secretary, Urban Development.

A similar situation exists in Haridwar, Kashipur and Roorkee where the urban bodies have recently being upgraded to municipal corporations that continue to follow the old commercial tax system. The tax assessment may have been carried out when Uttarakhand was still part of Uttar Pradesh. “There are several hotels and buildings that are paying a paltry sum as commercial tax. The municipal corporation officials need to periodically revise commercial tax on all such buildings. It will lead to a big rise in revenue for them,” said Garbyal.

Further, cash-strapped municipal corporations have not been able to raise their revenue and are dependent on the state to bail them out whenever they find themselves in a tight spot. With the Central government laying stress on performance of all urban local bodies as the main criteria to access central funds, the Uttarakhand Department of Urban Development has directed the municipal corporations and other local bodies to put in place a credible taxation system that allows them to increase their income.