Chandigarh civic body sends sealing notices to 20 commercial buildings

Tightening the noose around commercial tax defaulters, the tax branch of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) sent sealing notices to 20 commercial establishments on Monday. Despite being sent recovery noticed repeatedly, the defaulters had not paid Rs 8.47 lakh to the MC. The commercial establishments which have been sent the sealing notices are located in Sector 28 C, Sector 10 D, Sector 7, Manimajra, Sector 27 D, Sector 23, Sector 11 D. These commercial establishments are inclusive of shop-cum-office, shop-cum-flats and booths. As per records of the MC, these commercial establishments have to pay commercial property tax ranging from Rs 16,000 to Rs 1.3 lakh. The civic body had sent around three recovery notices in the past many months for the same. Now, the civic body authority has given 15 days' time to these commercial establishments to pay the property tax amount or else face the consequences. The commercial property tax is one of the most crucial means of revenue generation for the Chandigarh municipal corporation and therefore the civic body authority of the city has kept the target to incur at least 95% commercial tax during the current financial year. Due to the constant monitoring and pressure on the defaulters, the civic body authority received good amount of tax in the first five months of the current financial year than the last first five months of the same. As per the MC records, currently there are around 23,000 commercial properties in Chandigarh.