Chandigarh, Feb. 7 -- The cash-strapped Chandigarh municipal corporation's (MC) plan to impose a fourfold hike in property tax rates, by tabling an agenda in the MC House meeting on Friday, has been rejected by newly elected mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla.

MC has been levying property tax on government and commercial buildings since November 22, 2004, at 3% of the property's rateable value, despite the MC Act allowing up to 15%. Residential properties are charged property tax at a fixed slab-wise rate.

There are around 30,000 commercial units (non-residential properties) in Chandigarh, including government buildings, apart from 1,08,372 residential properties.

Thus, mired by a severe financial crisis, MC had sought to raise tax across all c...