Indian Express 3.11.2009
New property tax rates worry NDMC traders
In April this year, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) changed its property tax rules and since then, the traders of NDMC markets like Khan Market and Connaught Place have been worrying over the hike.
The first bills based on the new Unit Area Method (UAM) are to be out soon and landlords who have rented out properties in both the markets have started sending notices to their tenants telling them about the imminent hike.
The tenants and landlords fear that the new billing that will increase property tax manifold. Anshu Tandon, a landlord, and the Vice President of the Khan Market Welfare Association said that for one of his properties while he was paying Rs 340 per annum, now he is likely to pay Rs 83,000.
A tenant at Connaught Place, who did not want to be named, was paying Rs 250 per annum as tax to the landlord. He is now being asked for Rs 16,000. Anshu and other traders call the new laws “discriminatory” as there is no uniform system of calculating the bill. The NDMC can levy taxes based on the rent amount or per unit area, whichever is higher. Some traders who are earning high rents will have to shell out as much as Rs 5 lakh per annum.
The NDMC has put the new tax laws on the lines of MCD. The positive side is that it will ensure that all properties in the same neighbourhood are charged under the same property tax rate. It was also necessary to change the laws that were half-a-century old and which were not based on current prices of property. While many see the move as a welcome change, traders associations have been writing to the NDMC for a review. Atul Bhargava, President of the New Delhi Traders’ Association, complains that the base value of property is Rs 1,000 per annum no matter where the commercial establishment is set.
“Shops on the ground floor or shops in the Inner Circle of CP do better business than that in the Middle Circle or Outer Circle. To make them pay the same is infair,” he said.
