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The Punjab cabinet which met on Saturday also approved the imposition of Property Tax by amending the Punjab Municipal Act 1911 and the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976, in accordance with the recommendations of the cabinet sub-committee.
The Cabinet also approved to do away with the Zone wise unit value based Property Tax. The Cabinet not only decided to revert back to the old annual value system but also has given a slew of major concessions in that.
From the earlier house tax of 15% of the annual rental value for the commercial rented property, the rates have been reduced to 10% and for rental residential Property Tax rates have been brought down from earlier 10% to 7.5% annually .
Similarly, for non- rented commercial property the rates have been reduced from earlier 15% to 3% of the annual value. For self occupied houses upto 50 Sq. Yards a consolidated Rs. 50 per year would be charged and for houses between 50 to 100 Sq. Yards the annual consolidated tax of Rs.150/- would be charged.
For self occupied house having area between 100 to 500 square yards, the property tax @ 0.5% of the Annual Value and for Self Occupied Residential above 500 square yards, a tax @ 1% of the Annual Value would be charged. For vacant plots and un-utilized buildings and plots the Property tax would be @ 0.20% of the Annual Value.
Besides, all religious institutions, Gau Shallas, Care Centre for Stray Animals and Charitable Institutions besides Freedom Fighters and people living below the poverty line have been totally exempted from property tax.
Further, widows and the differently abled persons have been given a rebate upto Rs.5000/- from Property Tax. Meaning thereby that if a widow/differentally abled person was to pay Rs.6000/- as Property Tax, she/he would be liable to pay only Rs.1000/- after rebate of Rs.5000/-. To promote education in the state, all educational Institutions which were not even covered under Charitable Institutions have now been provided 50% rebate on the Property Tax .
