The Times of India           25.10.2010

No tax relief for green bldgs?

MUMBAI: Green buildings or environment-friendly buildings do not find a mention in BMC's draft property tax rules.

In 2007, the BMC had appointed the United States Agency for International Aid ( USAID), the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) and the Science and Technology Park, Pune, to formulate the technical criteria and a plan for implementing the eco-housing programme. BMC had even announced its intention to give a 50% rebate on property tax for buildings and individual houses that were environment-friendly.

Increasingly, builders in the city are offering constructions that are termed Green Buildings and even certified as such by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ( LEED) a globally recognized green building certification system. Green buildings are structures that minimize the damage to the environment through the use of solar energy, natural lighting, water recycling, rain-water harvesting, local and natural construction materials and generating minimum garbage etc.

However, the draft property rules go so far as to even include the area of the structure for an effluent treatment plant while arriving at the capital value of a building.It is now mandatory for all new constructions with a plot size of more than 2,000 sq m to have a rainwater harvesting system and for over 20,000 sq m it is mandatory to install an effluent treatment plant for treating 20% of the sewage generated by the residents.

"The BMC has the opportunity to promote eco-housing by providing weightage to such buildings in its property tax rules. At least it will incentivize citizens to implement some environment-friendly," said sources.

S S Shinde, joint municipal commissioner, in charge of assessment and collection, however, said the property tax rules were business rules. "Eco-housing programme is a policy. We can subsequently issue circulars announcing property tax rebates for such buildings. But it is not possible to include it in the property tax rules since it is all about computing capital value," he said.

Citizens can send in their objections and suggestions on the draft property tax rules before November 16.