The Times of India      12.09.2014 

Govt to amend rules, allow property tax refund claims

GURGAON:
The state government has decided to amend its property tax policy,
which is good news for taxpayers who have paid in excess if one takes
into account recent policy changes.

Officials said that since
house tax policy has changed several times over the last few years, and
with the latest change adopted in October 2013, the quantum of tax
actually reduced, meaning tax payers had paid in excess.

“The
house tax policy of the state has been changed a couple of times in the
recent past and before the latest policy was announced in October 2013,
some consumers were paying in excess. However, when the new policy was
announced, some tax was reduced or rationalized and therefore some of
the taxpayers have benefited,” said P Raghavendra Rao, additional chief
secretary to the government of Haryana.

“Some of them have been
demanding that the excess amount that they have paid be refunded and
since there was no such provision, we had to bring this amendment.
According to this amendment, which has already come into effect, those
owners who have paid more can now approach the municipal corporation and
seek a refund. In case they do not wish to seek a refund the excess
amount will automatically get adjusted against property tax for the year
2014-15,” he said.

Rao, the principal secretary of the urban
local bodies department, said while there might not be many in the
residential category who would have been charged excess amount, there
are many who might want to seek a refund in the institutional and
commercial category.

“The tax amount in the residential sector
is not much, but those in the commercial category would benefit as they
pay lakhs of rupees as tax and they might want to seek a refund. The
excess amount will be refunded to them without interest by the municipal
corporation concerned,” he said.