Urban News

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
General Administration

Property tax: MC to discuss exemption for defence personnel

Thursday, 28 November 2013 06:11 administrator
Print PDF

The Indian Express             28.11.2013 

Property tax: MC to discuss exemption for defence personnel

Following a representation by Brig K S Chandpuri (Retd), former nominated councillor and vice-president of Zila Sainik Welfare office, the issue of exemption of property tax on residential and commercial buildings owned by retired defence personnel and their families will be taken up in the General House meeting of the municipal corporation on Friday.

The MC recently notified the tax on residential property, while tax on commercial property was imposed several years ago.

In his representation, Brig Chandpuri demanded that ex-servicemen and their families be exempted from paying the tax.

The civic body had earlier sent a communication to the UT Administration demanding exemption of tax for 25 categories.

However, the same was rejected.

The issue will now be discussed in the House and the opinion of the councillors sent to the Administration for approval.

The MC has imposed tax at the rate of Rs 1 per square yard, which has to be paid till December 15.

However, the House Tax committee has asked for the date to be extended till March 31. It had been proposed that residents of housing societies be required to pay tax only for the area that is occupied, while the present notification entails that tax will have to be paid considering the whole area of the housing society, including parks and roads and then dividing it by the number of units.

Among other issues to be taken up at the meeting are a report by the committee that visited NEERI in Nagpur.

It has been proposed that a consultancy be sought on development of comprehensive solid waste management plan for MC. Further, the Memorandum of Understanding for joint co-operation programme between Urban Community of Plaine Commune, France, and Chandigarh will be brought up for discussion.

 

Eight nominated MC councillors to pledge support to merger of villages

Thursday, 28 November 2013 06:02 administrator
Print PDF

The Indian Express             28.11.2013 

Eight nominated MC councillors to pledge support to merger of villages

The nominated councillors of the municipal corporation will submit a memorandum to the Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj V Patil expressing their support to the resolution of merger of 13 villages into the MC. Of the nine nominated councillors, eight have extended their support.

This follows contentions by the BJP-SAD councillors and one nominated councillor that the voting on the resolution did not happen correctly and that it was stated to be passed even though there was no majority.

A special General House meeting of the MC was held on November 21 after the UT Administration asked for the MC's opinion on the merger of villages into municipal limits. While 10 villages have already been transferred to the civic body, it has been proposed that the remaining 13 should also be merged. Following this, the MC prepared a resolution that was presented in the House and passed. After this, nominated councillor Surinder Bahga submitted a representation to the Mayor asking for another meeting and proper voting to be done. A similar representation was also given by BJP-SAD councillors to the Municipal Commissioner.

The eight nominated councillors will now submit a representation to Patil extending support to the merger. Nominated councillor M P Kohli said, "We are extending support to the resolution not to support the Congress, but because it was mooted by the Administration. The development of the villages would take place once they are transferred to the MC."

The role played by the nominated councillors in the MC House over the past several years has been a contentious issue with political parties divided over this. With nine nominated councillors in the 36-member MC House, they can tilt the result of the Mayoral elections on either side. Senior BJP leaders had announced a decision to move the court against the right of nominated councillors to vote. However, the BJP has not acted on this till date.

There are 26 elected councillors in the MC House, nine nominated and one ex-officio member. Of the 26 elected, there are 12 from Congress, 11 from BJP-SAD, two from BSP and one nominated councillor.

 

PMC raids commercial units, penalises owners for evading LBT

Thursday, 28 November 2013 05:58 administrator
Print PDF

The Indian Express             28.11.2013 

PMC raids commercial units, penalises owners for evading LBT

With the state government giving a green signal to raid premises of traders, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has started conducting searches at commercial units which have failed to deposit local body tax (LBT) for the current financial year.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Jagtap said the PMC has so far raided 16 commercial units and penalised owners for not paying tax for imported goods.

"Our action is concentrated on traders who have not paid LBT to the civic body. The traders are identified through various search mechanisms, including collecting data from various agencies and procuring documents of traders from the octroi department of PMC," said Jagtap, adding, the drive would continue to recover the tax amount.

The PMC has 69,000 traders registered for LBT, including 55,000 registered with sales tax department.

Civic body's LBT department head Vilas Kanade said the PMC had given sufficient opportunities to traders to register themselves for LBT.

"There is no reason for anyone to oppose the PMC action as traders evading tax have failed to abide by the government regulations," he said, adding, the PMC collected Rs 750 crore LBT in the first seven months of the current financial year.

 
More Articles...


Page 170 of 686