12,000 penalised for not paying property tax on time in Shimla

Over 12,000 building owners in Shimla have been penalised for not paying property tax on time. The defaulters will now have to pay 5 per cent penalty over the total pending amount.

Bhuwan Sharma, Joint Commissioner, Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC), today said that notices were being issued to all defaulters. He added that action, as per the provisions, would be initiated against the defaulters if they still did not make any payments, even after receiving notices.

He said that there were also provisions for disconnecting the drinking water and electricity supply connections. “Besides, the defaulters will be charged 1 per cent on the total amount to be paid every month, if they continue to default,” he added.

Shimla has around 32,000 buildings and the corporation collects property tax from these every year. The corporation issues bills in April each year and the deadline to pay these is October. However, over 12,000 building owners are yet to pay the property tax to the civic body.

To encourage the timely payment of property tax, the corporation also offers a rebate of 10 per cent to the building owners, who pay the tax before the deadline. However, property tax evasion continues to be a big problem for the Shimla MC.

The MC had recently conducted a survey to find out those taxpayers who were running commercial activities from their houses but were paying the tax at domestic rates. The aim of the servey was to charge such people the tax at commercial rates.

In the previous financial year (2024-25), the corporation had collected Rs 19 crore as property tax and had set a target of collecting Rs 21 crore this financial year 2025-26.