Chandigarh civic body sends notices to properties over tax default

The Chandigarh municipal corporation issued the first lot of notice to the 40 commercial properties of the city, which failed to pay their property tax to the authority in the April to June rebate period. Out of around 40,000 commercial properties, only around 14,000 properties have paid the tax amount to the authority during this rebate period, as the rebate period ended on 30th June this year. Since the Chandigarh civic body started to send the notices, they have thought that initially notices will be sent to the commercial properties, but soon residential properties list will also be prepared to send notices to the defaulter residents also, who failed to pay the tax during the rebate period. A senior official told the media that all these 40 notices, which have been sent in the first lot, carry a financial cost of around rupees 10 lakh. Since these properties have failed to pay the tax, now they will have to pay a penalty as well as interest over it with their principal amount, as strict action will be taken against those who will fail to pay it. During the rebate period, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had received Rs 36.06 crore property tax, and the maximum of it was from commercial properties only. Though most taxpayers came from the residential part, more tax paid came from commercial properties, which can be due to high charges of commercial properties against residential properties. Image Source