Revised property tax likely to fetch Solan civic body Rs 21 cr

Ambika Sharma

Solan, March 19

The Solan Municipal Corporation will be richer by about Rs 21 crore after the collection of the revised property tax due since August 2022.

While house tax has been charged as per the old rate till July 2022, tax assessment as per the new rates is underway. This is the first tax revision undertaken by the Solan MC ever since it was upgraded in 2020.

The Union Government had made it mandatory for the governments to re-devise property tax bylaws in the urban local bodies (ULBs) using the unit area method by taking into consideration the plinth area of a property. The bylaws were chalked out to enable the civic body to obtain Central grants.

The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has mandated all urban local bodies to carry out various reforms under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) to provide basic civic amenities in the cities which will improve quality of life.

The mission mandates a set of 11 reforms, which have to be implemented by all states within a stipulated time. Property tax is one such reform to be implemented under the e-governance criteria. Once completed, it will help the MC enhance its revenue as tax is based on various parameters like location of a building.

These reforms are supposed to improve transparency, governance and delivery of quality service and include governance, finance, municipal service delivery, environment, etc.

Usha Sharma, Mayor, Solan MC, said: “An estimated Rs 21 crore would be earned by the civic body by collecting revised property tax whose assessment would be completed by March end. New property bylaws were made and a private agency, Aryabhatta Geo-informatics and Space Application Centre, was assessing the tax as per the new norms.”

This is the first such endeavour of the civic body, which will enable the authorities to undertake planning for improving civic amenities, besides assessing the buildings for imposing revised property tax.

A population growth of 57.26 per cent was registered in Solan in 2011, which was the highest in the state. Being the fastest growing ULB, Solan faces an immense load of urbanisation as besides increase in its population, a large chunk of floating population also visits it on a daily basis.