Chandigarh MC to start SMS and email alerts for property tax payments

In a bid to improve compliance of property tax payments, the municipal corporation (MC) will soon start intimating residents of their property tax demand and recovery notices through SMS and e-mail.

For this the corporation has started a drive to gather residents’ mobile numbers and email addresses. The mobile number and email can be registered at the MC’s official website under the “service” column.

For property tax payers, timely reminders will be sent through these modes to update them about pending dues. “This would help people to make their payments on time, and without inviting any penalties,” an MC official said.

The MC had recently made a detailed plan for making improvements in the property tax system, particularly, the introduction of technology-based solutions.

It had proposed geo-tagging of properties, intimating of property tax charges and penalties on regular basis via email and SMS, enhanced user-friendly features, improved automatic assessment and reduced human-interface.

It had also sought an in-principle approval from the MC General House for the same, but the same was rejected.

Make payments online and offline

The property tax can be paid on the civic body website, the ‘I’m Chandigarh’ app or at the Sampark centres through demand draft/cheque/cash.

The MC is offering 20% rebate to residential property tax payers and 10% to commercial entities who deposit their tax for the 2022-23 fiscal between April 1 and

May 31. The last date for cheque and demand draft payments is May 26.

After May 31, the civic body will impose a penalty of 25% and 12% interest on the tax dues sans rebate.

Notably, the MC tax branch has collected over ₹64 crore for the year 2021-2022 as property tax. This is an increase of more than 3 times than the collections in 2016, when the number stood at ₹20 crore.