Company fails to turn up for property tax survey, Chamba MC reclaims advance
Chamba, July 24
The Chamba Municipal Council has reclaimed an advance payment made to the Directorate of Urban Development for a property tax survey after the company appointed by the directorate failed to turn up for the survey.
The civic body will now transfer the amount only after the directorate appoints another company to conduct the survey, according to MC President Neelam Nayar.
The MC had planned to hold a property tax survey for the town last year, budgeting Rs 14 lakh for the task. However, despite advance payment being made about five months ago, urban development authorities failed to make arrangements for the survey, leading to logistical challenges in tax collection for the MC.
To address this issue, the MC decided in a recent House meeting to continue collecting property tax at the previous rates until the survey is completed.
Additionally, the Municipal Council also waived off the previously implemented 10 per cent increase in property tax to ease the burden of the residents.
The House resolved to reclaim the advance payment from the directorate. The directorate has now returned the advance payment and promised to send another company for the survey.
Chamba town has approximately 5,000 property owners. Last year, an abrupt increase in property tax rates sparked public outrage, leading to protests.
This prompted the MC’s decision to hold a survey to reassess the tax rates.
Following meetings with the directorate, an advance payment was made for the initiative.
Nair said the MC would now issue a new request to the directorate to ensure that the survey is conducted promptly.
The MC has been trying to conduct the survey to ascertain new house tax rates for over a year.
However, the survey has been postponed on several occasions due a slew of reasons. It would take approximately three months to conduct the survey across Chamba town’s 11 wards — Chougan, Hardaspura, Sultanpur, Dhrog, Surada, Sapri, Jansaali, Hatnala, Chauntra, Julahkari and Kasakda.
There are over 4,500 houses across in the town’s wards. Following the survey, the new house tax rates would be determined within approximately six months.
The last survey to ascertain the house tax was conducted in 2018-19.
However, the company engaged at that time did not conduct the survey as per norms, leading to the MC House rejecting it.
