Indian Express 02.10.2010
Corporators back tax rebate for armed forces personnel, BMC nod awaited
A proposal to provide a rebate on property tax for serving and retired armed forces personnel is awaiting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s nod. The proposal was cleared in June in the civic body meeting by corporators unanimously.
“Retired and serving personnel of armed forces are not exempted from property tax,” said V D Pandere, Assessor & Collector. He added, “Although such a proposal had been mooted, nothing is finalised yet.” According to officials, about 2500-3000 properties of serving and retired defence personnel are under the BMC tax net.
Following the example of neighbouring municipal corporations of Thane and Navi Mumbai, the BMC had also passed the proposal in June this year. Under the proposal, soldiers, ex-servicemen and family of former armed personnel who passed away were supposed to get rebate on property tax.
However, the administration has so far not acted on implementing the proposal which has been represented time and again by various associations of defence personnel over the past few years.
According to members of the Ex-Servicemen Organisation, Mumbai Region, the Thane Municipal Corporation has already started implementing the proposal to completely exempt retired armed forces personnel from property tax. “This should also be implemented by BMC too,” said Daljit Singh Anand, retired air-force personnel and a member of the Ex-servicemen Organisation, Mumbai Region.
“I have served my country in the 1971 Bangladesh War and on various other occasions. At least the administration needs to be respectful of such facts and exempt us from property tax,” said Anand. “The administration can show some recognition and appreciate our efforts by giving such rebates,” said another member B L Gupta, retired from Indian Navy. “This would help some families to ease off their financial burden”, said Gupta.
“Requests from various associations have been pouring in but until now no official decision has been taken,” said BJP Corporator and Improvements Committee Chairman, Manoj Kotak. The proposal is yet to go to the Standing Committee.
“A rebate of 30-35 per cent can be given under such a proposal as that would not affect the property tax collections significantly,” said a official from Assessment & Collection Department. “However, implication of a complete exemption is yet to be studied,” he said.
The BMC has already dispatched property tax bills for this year in September according to the old rateable value system. “Bureaucracy and red tapism has delayed such a important proposal and the BMC should have looked into the matter seriously and given due respect to the service provided by armed forces,” said Kotak.
Recently municipal corporations in other states such as Punjab, Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have also implemented such a proposal.
