Indian Express 03.12.2010
Suburb residents most curious about new tax systemThe new capital value-based property tax system will, once implemented, mainly impact tax for property in the island city. But much to the surprise of the civic administration, the majority of suggestions and objections have come from residents of the suburbs.
“Almost 65 per cent of the objections and suggestions have been received from the suburbs,” said a senior official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The BMC got 216 suggestions and objections to the new system upon invitation. The civic administration had extended the deadline for inviting suggestions owing to poor response in the first 15 days.
“We are happy with the number of responses. In fact, we were sure that the majority of responses will come in the last two weeks,” said Ravikant B Dalvi, Deputy Assessor and Collector.
“We were expecting a better response from the residents of the city for whom the property tax structure is going to change drastically,” said the official.
Following the implementation of the new system, residents of South Mumbai will have a higher property tax assessment while those living in the suburbs will see a reduction in taxes. Popular suggestions and objections include that luxurious buildings should not be taxed differentially. Under the new system, the definition of ‘luxurious’ RCC building includes one that has a swimming pool, either a gymnasium, club house, jogging track, multi-level car parking having three or more levels, health club, servant quarters, private terrace as part of each flat.
According to officials, a large number of suggestions/objections include that the property tax should be charged on the carpet area and not the built-up area as proposed by the BMC.
The carpet area is the actual usable area, while the built-up area consists of the area outside the house, including staircase, elevator, etc, which can constitute up to 25 per cent of the area.
“If we calculate the property tax on the carpet area, which is less than the built-up area, the tax will be much lower,” said an official.
As the BMC hasn’t yet fixed the tax rates for property, most of the suggestion/objections also included queries on what was the fixed tax rate under the new system, said an official.
“At the end of the day, people are interested in knowing how much will they have to pay from their pockets,” the official added.
