The Times of India 04.09.2012
More property tax for those without water connections
to make up for the delay in hiking general water tax. Owners in some
good localities may have to cough up around 40% more property tax.Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has started to distribute property
tax bills for this fiscal. According to information from NMC, property
tax bills of owners who do not have water connections have been prepared
according to the hiked general water tax.
Despite protests, NMC had not rolled back the hiked general water tax.According to data with NMC, 1,13,442 of total 4,71,442 taxpayers do not
have water connections. The property taxpayers having properties with
annual letting value (ALV) between 1-199 will have to pay Rs200 extra as
general water tax. The NMC is charging Rs400 for properties with ALV
between 200-1,000.The biggest sufferers will be property
taxpayers with properties having ALV over 1,000.
They will have to pay
40% more property tax as general water tax. All properties in good
localities come under category of ALV over Rs1,000. Slum dwellers and
small property holders will come under ALV of 1,000.Very few of
the property taxpayers are aware of the hiked general water tax. A
senior NMC official said that the general water tax was hiked with
effect from April 1, 2009, along with the hike in water tariff. “Water
tariff was reduced after public outcry in 2010.
But the hiked general
water tax was not reduced and remained as it is. There was a big
controversy on the water tariff. Therefore, the property tax department
did not levy the hiked general water tax on property holders without
water connection. The property tax was also hiked in that period due to
introduction of base rate system,” he said.The official further
said that NMC woke up about the hiked, but unimplemented, general water
tax at the end of 2010. “NMC decided to start levying the general water
tax according to the revised rates.
Now, NMC has levied the revised
general water tax, that too with arrears of two years. There were many
complaints from slum dwellers but not from other localities. NMC again
levied general water tax according to the hiked rates, since there was
no hike in the last fiscal,” he said.It would be interesting to
see the reaction of property taxpayers after receiving the property tax
bills. A citizen from Dharampeth said he was not at all aware of any
such revision in the general water tax. “We are using water from our
well. Why should we pay 40% more property tax if we are not taking water
from NMC,” he questioned.
