Started in September, property tax assessment not yet finalised in Solan

Ambika Sharma

Solan, January 8

The Solan Municipal Corporation is yet to complete tax assessment based on unit area method which is underway since September. The new tax has become applicable from August 2022 after the new rates were notified.

Will be completed by March-end

• Zaffar Iqbal, Commissioner, Solan, MC, said that assessment will be completed by March end. He urged the residents to pay pending tax liability of about Rs 3 crore based on the old value based system to avoid penalties
• According to the revised rates, tax up to 25% has been imposed on commercial and domestic properties by considering factors like location, structure, age and occupancy of a building

A drone-based survey was initiated by the Aryabhatta Geo-informatics and Space Application Centre in September 2023 to assess the new rates. The delay in completing the assessment has, however, put on hold realisation of the tax since 2022. Residents lament that the delay in assessing the property tax will put a huge liability and it should be completed at the earliest.

“While assessment has been completed in 10 of the 17 wards, the assessment in the remaining wards would be completed by March end,” informed Zaffar Iqbal, Commissioner, Solan, MC.

According to the revised rates, tax up to 25 per cent has been imposed on commercial and domestic properties by considering factors like location, structure, age and occupancy of a building.

The MC earned Rs 47.30 crore annually as property tax. It will go up as the new tax structure has come into force since April 1, 2023. The tax is collected annually and once the survey is complete, the MC will initiate its collection.

Being the first such endeavour by an urban local body (ULB) in the state, the exercise, when completed, will also generate data for planning for improving civic amenities, besides assessing the buildings for imposing revised property tax.

The Union Government had made it mandatory to re-devise bylaws of property tax 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 ULB to obtain Central grants. Though they were supposed to be notified by March 2022, the process of notification was delayed.

Merged areas, comprising villages lying in its precincts, were added to the civic body when it was upgraded to a municipal corporation in 2020. They were granted tax exemption for the first three years and this period expired in October 2023. Though its residents have given a representation to extend the exemption for some more time the state government was yet to accede to their demand.