The Times of India          15.10.2013

No civic body deadline for Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation yet to come up

NAVI MUMBAI: City traders will have to wait a little longer for the official announcement on reduction of Local Body Tax (LBT) levied by the civic body.

Recently, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) officials had a meeting with the traders' association to hear grievances of the mercantile community. In the meeting, representatives of 18 associations discussed the LBT issue with the civic officials and urged the civic body to have a uniform tax system instead of levying different slabs of the LBT for goods, soft drinks etc.

"The mercantile association has tabled their problems before the corporation. Before taking the proposal ahead,

The corporation is waiting for more suggestion from traders who are yet to come before the civic body with their grievances," said Sudhir Cheke, deputy municipal commissioner, NMMC (Cess) to TOI.

Meanwhile, a senior Mantralaya official said that the entire process of reducing the LBT is lengthy one and one cannot set a deadline for the completion of the procedure. "What is the quantum of tax to be reduced and on which sectors are yet to be decided.

Once the NMMC completes the formal procedure, the proposal will has to be forwarded to Mantralya for its approval. The process will take at least a couple of months. Possibility of completing the procedure before Diwali seems very bleak," he said.

Last month, TOI was the first to reported that CM Prithviraj Chavan had, in principle, agreed to reduce LBT in Navi Mumbai to 1.5% from the existing 2%. Prior to LBT, the NMMC use to collect cess. The annual collection of the cess was nearly Rs 425 crore. But after introduction of the new tax structure, NMMC has estimated the collection to be around Rs850 crore.

The ruling DF government had, last year, announced introduction of LBT in various cities to replace octroi or cess. LBT is a tax that is levied on the entry of goods for use and consumption within the jurisdiction of local municipal body.

NMMC's annual revenue collection prior to LBT: Rs 425 crore

Estimated annual revenue collection after replacing cess with LBT: Rs 850 crore

LBT tax structure:

Major goods: 2 per cent

Soft drinks: 3 per cent

Liquor: 7 per cent 

The Indian Express         15.10.2013

From today onwards, you can deposit house tax

City residents will be able to deposit property tax on residential property from Monday onwards at the sampark centres as well as the Municipal Corporation office.

Self-assessment of the tax is to be done by the residents between October 14 and December 14. Thereafter, the civic body will impose fine. The tax amount paid will be for a period of one year.

The UT Administration had notified the imposition of house tax on July 4. The tax has to be paid at the rate of Re 1 per square yard. The houses below five marla and those of the economically weaker sections have been exempted. The houses in villages and colonies have also been exempted. There are more than 80,000 houses that will come under the ambit of the newly imposed tax.

The residents can download the form from the website of the Municipal Corporation. The facility to pay the tax will be available at the e-sampark and gram sampark centres. At these centres, the residents will have to pay Rs 9 and Rs 4 respectively as transaction charges.

There are 20,265 marla and kanal houses, 7,979 houses in co-operative societies, 5,597 MIG houses, 10,675 HIG houses, 15,053 houses under the administration and 22,040 under the Central government. In the case of co-operative housing societies, the tax will have to be paid taking the area of the society as one unit. This will then be divided by the total number of units and accordingly each household will have to pay the tax. The move is being resented by the residents of these societies.

The residents of 5-marla houses will have to pay Rs 125 while those owning 6-marla houses will have to pay Rs 150 per year. The amount for other houses will be: Rs 187.50 for 7.5-marla houses, Rs 200 for 8-marla, Rs 250 for 10-marla, Rs 275 for 11-marla, Rs 375 for 15-marla and Rs 500 for one-canal house.

The tax has been imposed to fulfil one of the conditions under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.