Early birds get 10% rebate on property tax

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan,August 6

One thousand early tax depositors have availed the benefit of 10 per cent discount on the property tax worked out on the unit area basis in Solan Municipal Corporation(MC).

Solan MC Commissioner Ekta Kapta said, "Bills to the tune of Rs 4 crore have been generated and those submitting the bill within 15 days will be granted a 10 per cent discount"."Besides, residents have been given the relaxation of depositing the tax in two installments. Property owners will be given a three-month window to submit the two installments after issuance of the bill," she said.

"Online bills will be generated and the property owners will receive a message on their registered mobile numbers about the due amount," the MC Commissioner added.

As per the new rates property tax to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore has been assessed in its 17 wards after an exhaustive 10-month survey. The exercise, which began in September 2023, done by the Aryabhatta Geo-informatics and Space Application Centre, was completed earlier this year.

Receipt of the tax will boost the finances of the cash-strapped civic body, which is largely dependent on the state and central grants.

Since no property tax was charged after August 2022, pending evaluation under the new formula, the civic body was deprived of a sizable chunk of income. The evaluated tax is being charged from August 4, 2022 to March 2024. There are about 12,000 households in the civic body.

The buildings were grouped into five categories on the basis of their age started from those existing before 1947, those constructed between 1947 to 1980, those constructed from 1981 to 2000, 2001 to 2020 and 2-21 and beyond. This criteria was used to calculate tax besides other criteria like location, use of a building, etc. New bye-laws were notified to facilitate evaluation on this criteria by the civic body.

In the first phase, tax was generated for 4,000 households from ward numbers comprising 1, 3,4,5, 6,7 and 13 amounting to Rs four crore. Out of this amount, Rs one crore has been deposited while the remaining amount was yet to be paid, informed an official of the civic body. In the next phase 4,000 more bills will be generated soon while the remaining bills will be generated in the third phase.

The MC earned Rs 4.73 crore property tax annually under the old rate.

Can deposit tax in two installments

• Owners submitting the bill within 15 days will be granted a 10 per cent discount, MC Commissioner said
• Residents have been given the relaxation of depositing the tax in two installments. Property owners will be given a three-month window to submit the two installments after issuance of the bill
• Online bills will be generated and the property owners will receive a message on their registered mobile numbers about the due amount
• Receipt of the tax will boost the finances of the cash-strapped civic body, which is largely dependent on state and Central grants