A total of Rs 5 lakh has been earmarked for survey in the budget.
Significantly, in a missive, UT had recently told the MC for revision of
existing tax on commercial properties, besides initiating property tax
on residential properties.

Sources in the MC revealed that no
survey of commercial properties has been carried out after 2009-10 and
many commercial properties have been transferred to the civic body from
UT.

“MC got four new villages from the Chandigarh administration in 2010-2011 in which there are around 3,100 units on whom we have to levy the commercial property tax.

Besides this, revision of existing tax is also pending since long. The
tax on commercial properties was imposed in 2004 and as per norms, it
should have been revised after three years in 2007, but nothing has been
done till date,” said a senior official of MC, pleading anonymity.

When asked, municipal commissioner Vivek Partap Singh
said, “There is no recent revision in the commercial tax. An amount has
been kept aside in the budget for revision. If required, the money can
be used in the survey, as to get funds immediately for such an exercise
is a tough task.”