The Times of India             19.08.2013

Now, calculate your property tax online

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has introduced an online calculator to compute property taxes.

The system, uploaded by the BMC recently, will help citizens compute property taxes using the right formula and ready-reckoner rates.

Additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota said, "The system is more discreet . You can verify facts with calculations made online and check if they are correct. The property tax bill issued by the BMC last month has details of the carpet area, age and type of property. If you notice that details in the bill and those in the tax calculator do not tally, you can call up the ward office and mistakes can be rectified. You can see outstanding bills and calculate their property tax too."

The tax calculator system also shows you how property should be assessed. The parameters that will be used to arrive at the capital valuebased system to compute property tax: Name of ward, zone, sub-zone , occupancy type (self-occupied or tenements protected under Maharashtra Rent Control Act), user main category (land, residential, commercial, industrial ), user sub-category (air-conditioning , bungalow, bank, car parking on stilts, clubhouse, coaching class, departmental store, clinic, dispensary ), date of effect, floor, floor sub-type (loft, attic, mezzanine ), year of construction, nature and type of building (luxurious, RCC, pucca building or kuccha structure), age of building, tax code, floor space index (FSI), metered or unmetered, carpet area in square metres.

Property taxes were earlier calculated by the rateable value system. The system calculates property taxes based on the maximum amount of rent fetched by a property in a year. The BMC, however, switched to the capital valuebased system, that calculates property taxes depending on present market value of the property.

Advocate Godfrey Pimenta , who has checked data uploaded by the assessment and collection department of BMC, said, "I have checked details of my property. There are outstanding amounts shown on the web site. I have made payments and submitted written proof to the BMC but the data uploaded is not up to the mark. The tax calculator will be useful for citizens."

The civic body now plans to make the payment of property tax bills online too.

What is capital value?

It is the market value of property at a specific time. It depends on the stamp duty ready-reckoner , which the government revises every year. Category-wise capital values can change like construction, user and age. The categories have different weights and these are used while calculating capital value

How to calculate property tax (Capital value-based system)

Capital value = Base value x Built up area x Use category x Type of building x Age factor x Floor factor Property tax once fixed, will not be revised for five years and after that the increase will be restricted to 40% Residential units with greater than 500 sqft carpet area will pay twice the old tax or tax calculated by new system Residential units with less than 500 sqft carpet area will pay taxes as per old system.