First 15 sectors of Chandigarh come under GIS mapping

CHANDIGARH: As the tax branch of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) has served property tax notices in the residential areas of the first 15 sectors of the city, the civic body authority has simultaneously prepared the Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping of the residential properties falling under these sectors.

The step has been taken to keep an eye on tax evaders in the future and also to provide residents with the facility of filing tax online by the end of the current year. The link for the same will be provided on the Chandigarh MC website.

The GIS mapping carries details of houses, including total area of the residence, its covered area, non-covered area, taxable area, location of property, picture of the property and name of the owner. The said details are being fed in the software sector-wise to prepare the data.

“Not only the houses that have been served notices, but all the houses of the first 15 sectors are being kept under the GIS mapping, regardless of the fact whether they have paid tax or not. With this move, we will be able to prepare a bank of details of each house, which will be given a unique identity (UID) number. The same UID number will be given to the owners of the houses later which would be of use to them when they file their tax amount online. They can also see their tax amount, date of filing the tax and other related details using the UID,” said an official.

“The representatives of the private company are sitting in the office and with the coming of every information of the houses, they are feeding the same in the software,” the official added. Since the MC has been sending notices to the residential areas sector-wise, the GIS mapping of all the sectors will be done to prepare the bank of information of all such properties. Till date the MC has sent property tax notices worth over Rs 2 crore to the residential properties of the first 15 sectors of the city.

The Central government impanelled company has already completed the sector-wise survey of residential areas of the city and deposited the report to the MC. As per the survey, they found 1.22 lakh houses of the city including government house, EWS houses and so on. Around 65,000 houses are falling in the tax ambit.The Centre will pay around Rs 95 lakh for the survey, GIS mapping and related works.