50% yet to pay property tax in Chandigarh as last date nears

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

With the last date for paying the property tax inching closer, only about 50 per cent taxpayers have done the needful.

Those failing to pay the house and commercial tax by June 30 will not get any rebate and will also have to pay 25 per cent fine, along with 12 per cent interest, on the tax dues.

At present, assessees are getting 20 per cent rebate on residential and 10 per cent on commercial tax.

According to officials, about 60,000 people have cleared their house and commercial tax dues while the city has a total of 1.15-1.20 lakh assessees. The Municipal Corporation has recovered Rs28.50 crore against the target of Rs55 crore for the current fiscal.

Rohit Gupta, MC Joint Commissioner, who heads the property tax branch, told The Tribune: “Over 50 per cent assessees have paid their property tax. Though June 30 is the last date to pay with rebate, payments can be made even after that.”

An official said: “Due to the Covid restrictions, Sampark centres remained closed for several days due to which the payment process slowed down. We are confident that the numbers will now increase.”

Those failing to pay by the due date are served notices by the corporation. If one fails to pay the tax even after the final notice, suitable action is taken. In case of house tax, water connection can be snapped while in the case of commercial category, property can be attached.

In the past few years, the civic body has attached some commercial properties due to the owners’ failure to clear the property tax dues. However, there has been no information from the corporation on water connection being snapped.

‘Unable to make payment on the Sampark app’

The Sampark app has not been accepting the payment of property tax for some days now, causing inconvenience to residents.

“The app is accepting other payments such as water and electricity bill, but not the property tax. There is some issue between the Municipal Corporation and the Sampark regarding it,” said RK Garg, president of a senior citizen association.

People can also make the payment on the Sampark website or at Sampark centres.