MC refuses to impose house tax

Chandigarh, June 8
Cutting across party lines, members of the house tax assessment committee today unanimously rejected the proposal of the imposition of house tax and enhancement of commercial tax in the city. During an interaction with the media here today, committee chairman Sat Parkash Aggarwal said it was decided that neither house tax would be imposed in the city nor would commercial tax be revised as directed by the UT Administration.

Objecting to the delay in the payment of a matching grant of property tax, which the Administration had assured in 2004 when commercial tax was imposed by the corporation, he stated that the Administration had to pay Rs 48 crore since 2004. He said even after several reminders, the Administration had not released the funds to date. Hence, they could not impose a new tax.

Clueless about the norms of getting JNNRUM grant, Aggarwal said the corporation was "rich" and there was no need for any kind of grant from the Administration or the Centre to implement development projects in the city.

He said directions had been given to officials to conduct a fresh survey about commercial buildings and impose property tax on it. The committee also asked about the details of habitual defaulters of property tax and instructed the department to take stringent action to recover pending tax from them.

MC Additional Commissioner Lalit Siwach said a communication was being sent to the Administration to release the pending share of the matching grant of property tax. He said the Administration would also be apprised of the decision of the house tax assessment committee and the decision would be tabled in the forthcoming meeting of the House.

"Ignoring" the fact if the committee has any power to reject the imposition of new tax, vice-chairman of the committee MP Kohli said the committee could pass the resolution and send it to the Administration for consideration.

He said the grant which the Administration would get from JNNRUM would not only be utilised by the corporation, but also other departments. Commercial property tax was imposed by the corporation when there was a financial crunch, but now as the financial position had improved, there was no need to impose any new tax to generate funds.

The committee also directed the officials to prepare a detailed report on the share of grant-in-aid received from the Administration in the past.