The new house tax rules for commercial properties implemented from Thursday are expected to bring down the tax burden on owners by almost 50-60%. On Thursday, Lucknow Municipal Corporation authorities distributed new forms of non-housing properties based on new rules to zonal officers and trained them. Officials are required to distribute forms to owners of non-housing properties in their zones for self-assessment of house tax.

Earlier, commercial house taxes were based on a certain percentage of the property's capital cost. Tax would now be calculated by self evaluation of residential value and multiplying it with number of times, maximum up to six, depending on the category. Non-housing properties have been divided into 10 categories.

There are about 4.70 lakh properties in Lucknow, including residential and non-housing properties. Around 75,000 would be non-housing ones which total contribute 30% of the tax revenues to the corporation. Municipal commissioner R K Singh said "if all owners of non-housing properties in Lucknow come forward to pay taxes regularly, our annual income would increase by almost Rs 20-30 crore."

There are many petrol pump owners, factory owners and businessmen reluctant to pay taxes due to the heavy financial burden. In the previous format, house tax on non-housing units was calculated by multiplying the property's capital cost (sum of the land cost which appreciates yearly) and the cost of construction (which depreciates on a yearly basis) by 7 and taking out 15% of total value.