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Taxation


VMC plans to revise property tax

Wednesday, 06 August 2014 11:35 administrator
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The Hindu       06.08.2014 

VMC plans to revise property tax

Proposals likely to be submitted at the council meeting today

The cash-starved Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is planning to revise property tax for both residential and commercial properties in the city. Authorities are likely to present the proposal during the first meeting of the VMC council slated on Wednesday.

There are 13 residential and commercial zones in the corporation limits and authorities launched a pilot survey in three circles – 1, 18 and 32 on how to go about the property tax revision. The hike, according to sources, is expected to be considerable depending on the zone and different parameters like slum areas, nature of construction, residential and commercial structures.

At present, the corporation generates annual property tax revenue of Rs.74 crore and the proposed revision is expected to net another Rs.30 crore. Authorities list out a few reasons for the need to revise property tax.

The main reason cited behind the proposed revision is rising expenditure and declining revenues. The annual revenue generated by the corporation is Rs. 220 crore, while its expenditure has already crossed Rs. 270 crore. This apart, the corporation has contracts payment dues to the tune of Rs.100 crore, ESI and PF payments.

Actually, property tax has to be revised for five years. It was last revised in 2002 and since then there has been no revision for different reasons – administrative and political. Though it is essential to revise the tax, much will depend on council’s approval, says a senior official of VMC.

But even before the authorities could think about presenting the proposal, there is strong opposition from residents. “A few corporators are discussing about the issue but authorities should think again about the proposal. Prices of essential commodities are already sky rocketing and this will be an additional burden on residents. We will oppose it,” says V. Sambi Reddy, president of Tax Payers Association.

 

Civic body recovers Rs 40L from APMC shopowners

Friday, 21 March 2014 09:02 administrator
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The Times of India      21.03.2014 

Civic body recovers Rs 40L from APMC shopowners

AURANGABAD: The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Thursday sealed 25 shops at Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) premises and recovered property tax of close to Rs 40 lakh from the shopowners. Tax collection in charge in the AMC, Shivaji Zanzan, said that the 25 shops were sealed in the morning hours but 15 of them were opened after the shopowners cleared the outstanding amount.
 
"It was a satisfactory day for the tax recovery department," he said. Since the AMC initiated tax collection drive against the APMC shopowners, it has recovered a total of Rs 76 lakh.
 
The AMC is eyeing recovery of Rs 5 crore from APMC shopowners till March 31 and to speed up the tax recovery, the AMC has set a special camp in the market. But sources in the AMC said that reaching the Rs 5 crore mark is not a possibility. "The AMC has reduced the tax amount of all the shopowners and thus the total collection should be in the range of Rs 1.5 crore," the source said.
 
About 907 shopowners in the premises have been evading property tax since 1998. They were demanding reassessment in the tax saying that the civic body should levy property tax as per the net rateable value (NRV) of 1998 instead of its value in 2006.
 
After the construction of 907 shops in 1998, the APMC had allotted it to 826 owners. Some of the shopowners had purchased two blocks. The APMC was supposed to collect the tax from the occupants and pay it to the civic body. But there was dispute over this process.
 
In 2006-07, it was decided that the shopowners will directly pay the tax to the AMC. And the municipal body had issued tax notices based on NRV of 2006 but the occupants wanted it as per the NRV of 1998.
 
Zanzan said that the civic body had accepted the demand of the shopowners and issued new bills to them.
 
Meanwhile, the AMC on Thursday collected Rs 53.37 crore on account of property tax and Rs 17.69 crore under the head of water charges in 2013-14. "The total collection has touched Rs 71.06-crore mark," Zanzan said.

 

 

Property Tax to be assessed from date of issuance of occupancy certificate

Thursday, 20 March 2014 06:29 administrator
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The Hindu       20.03.2014

Property Tax to be assessed from date of issuance of occupancy certificate

GHMC will assess the property tax of a building from the date of issuance of the occupancy certificate, Commissioner Somesh Kumar on Wednesday told his senior officials including zonal and deputy commissioners.

The municipal corporation had issued 2,087 occupancy certificates to the buildings in the last three financial years, covering a total net area of 40,28,412 sq.ft. and directed officials to complete the verification and assessment of the buildings within the next two days. Further, teams from the head office will do the crosschecking.

GHMC has issued 542 no-objection certificates and hence, property should be assessed from the last two-and-a-half years. There are about 760 pending court cases involving Rs. 9,730.90 lakh and the GHMC wants every case to be handled carefully.

The head office can coordinate with departments like town planning, fire, vigilance & enforcement to clear the cases. Hand held devices too should be put to good use. The extra staff being deployed from other departments to collect tax arrears should be utilised to look into 2.02 lakh property tax payers with current amount and arrears minus interest of up to Rs. 347 crore. Each bill collector has been told to visit 30 tax payers daily and collect their phone numbers.

 

NMC cuts over 400 connections

Wednesday, 19 March 2014 07:27 administrator
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The Times of India        19.03.2014

NMC cuts over 400 connections

NASHIK: The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has disconnected 409 more connections of water tax defaulters across the city in the last seven days.

With the fresh disconnections, the civic body has snapped a total of 1,093 water connections in the last three weeks. This is part of the NMC administration's action against water tax defaulters.

A total of 380 water connections have been cut in the Cidco division of the municipal corporation alone. In the other areas, 306 connections have been disconnected in Panchavati, 143 in Nashik Road, 125 in Satpur, 118 in Nashik East and 21 water connections have been snapped in the Nashik West division.

An NMC official said, "We have intensified our drive against the water tax defaulter. So far, we have snapped water connections of around 1,093 water tax defaulters in the last few days. We will continue our drive of disconnecting water connections of water tax defaulters. We have set the water tax collection target of Rs 53.82 crore for the current fiscal year 2013-14. Till date (by March 18) in the current fiscal, we have collected water tax amounting to Rs 29.85 crore."

He also said, "Our objective is to achieve the water tax collection target set for the current fiscal year by March end. But, we could collect only 55% of the total water tax collection."

There are a total 1.74 lakh water connections across the NMC's six divisions - 54,657 water connections in the Cidco division, 32,112 in Panchavati, 27,257 in Nashik Road, 26,408 in Nashik East, 24,026 in Satpur and 9,697 water connections in Nashik West division of NMC.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 March 2014 07:29
 

Amnesty scheme for Howrah municipal tax payers

Wednesday, 05 March 2014 10:01 administrator
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The Hindu         05.03.2014

Amnesty scheme for Howrah municipal tax payers

Similar to the scheme offered by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation

In a bid to mop up the Rs.550-crore tax arrears piled up at the Howrah Municipal Corporation, the Mamata Banerjee government has decided to introduce an amnesty scheme under which penalty and interest dues would be waived for the next six months.

“We have decided to waive the penalty and interest due for all municipal tax assesses in a waiver scheme for Howrah Municipal Corporation. This is similar to the scheme offered by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation,” Municipal Affairs Minister Firhad Hakim told reporters at the makeshift secretariat at Nabanna in Howrah.

The scheme took effect from Tuesday. The KMC scheme offered 90 per cent waiver that helped to mop up around Rs.400 crore, Mr. Hakim said.

The announcement coming ahead of the Lok Sabha election aims at recovering around Rs.200 crore (principal) which fell due since 1993-94.

Howrah Mayor Rathin Chakraborty said the number of defaulters had risen to 65 per cent and the scheme would help to regularise dues.

 
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