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Taxation

GHMC special drive to nail tax defaulters

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 09:39 administrator
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The New Indian Express                    02.04.2013

GHMC special drive to nail tax defaulters

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will soon launch a three month special drive against the property tax defaulters from April to June. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, GHMC mayor M Majid Hussain and GHMC commissioner M T Krishna Babu said all property tax defaulters in the city will be asked to clear their pending dues and also the penalty amount.

Of the total 13,12,147 property tax assessments, about 8,12,465 owners have paid their property tax. Despite several reminders the remaining 5 lakh house owners, mostly those owning residential houses have failed to pay the property. The dues are to the tune of Rs 3,271 crore. The state government earlier waived interest on arrears and current year dues on property tax, if paid before March 31. It also adjusted already paid interest amount to the property tax payable in future.

“The waiver of interest on arrears and current year dues is a one-time concession provided the assesses clears the entire arrears and current year dues of property tax in a single payment or in instalments before March 31. Many house owners failed to utilise the chance,” said Krishna Babu.  

Criminal cases against bounced cheque’s:

On the issue of bounced cheques, the commissioner said that GHMC will wait up to April 5 to see if the cheques are honoured.

In case of the cheques’ getting bounced, the GHMC will book criminal cases against the people for issuing dishonoured cheques. GHMC has appointed a consultant to deal with such cases.

The total revenue income and capital receipts for 2012-13 was about Rs 2,492 crore as against Rs 1,886 crore during 2011-12, an increase of Rs 606 crore (32 per cent). The Rs 2,492 crore includes Rs 1,890 crore as revenue income and `602 crore as capital receipts.

The property tax collection for 2012-13 was  Rs 779 crore which is an increase of Rs 179 crore (30 per cent).

About Rs 338 crore is from TPT receipts, increase of Rs 80 crore (31 per cent). The town planning receipts is about Rs 515 crore which is an increase of Rs 179 crore (54 per cent).

The BPSLRS is Rs 158 crore, showing an increase of Rs 101 crore (86 per cent). Trade licence receipts are Rs 26 crore, showing an increase of Rs 4 crore (21 per cent).

The advertisement receipts are Rs 27 crore, an increase of Rs 5 crore (23 per cent).

During 2012-13, GHMC has spent Rs 329 crore on road developmental works, Rs 8 crore for the construction of flyovers and bridges, Rs 1010 crore for constructing storm water drains, Rs 31 crore parks, Rs 4 crore for playgrounds.

 

Property tax: Deadline over, no decision on unit values

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 07:31 administrator
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The Indian Express                       02.04.2013

Property tax: Deadline over, no decision on unit values

Joint commissioner says people will have to pay tax from April 1.

The Municipal Corporation and district administration, after making a lot of fuss over the proposed property tax and setting the deadline of April 1 for the implementation of the same, on Monday failed to fix the unit values and complete the survey by the deadline.

"The property tax will not be fully implemented before September as the survey is yet to be done in a majority of areas. There are many other changes which are being considered at the top level in its structure," said an MC officer, requesting anonymity.

However, when contacted, joint commissioner P S Ghuman, who had earlier said that there would be no delay in implementation of tax and DC would call a meeting to fix unit values soon, on Monday told Ludhiana Newsline, "Due to some unavoidable reasons, finalisation of zoning and unit values is still pending but this does not mean that tax implementation has been delayed. Whenever the values are finalised, people will have to pay tax from April 1 only which means that their tax will be calculated from April 1."

However, the mystery over the actual position of property tax proposal still remains a mystery as Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashoo had something different and interesting to share.

Ashoo said, "Government is altogether re-considering the whole proposal under Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. But one thing is final that the tax will be implemented for sure. It is the efforts of Congress which have borne fruit as it was only after meeting with DC in which we did not allow unit values to be finalised as they were too high, that the proposal is being re-considered all over by committee of some MLAs under Deputy Chief Minister."

He added that after a particular meeting, DC has called no other meeting or taken any action.

Ashoo added that the government was looking at all options to simplify the whole structure of tax to a maximum level and reduce tax values to a minimum for residential areas.

"Now a discussion will be held only after committee gives out its new scheme. Till then nothing is on cards for Ludhiana," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Rahul Tewari was not available for comment.

 

Local body tax likely to generate Rs 60-cr revenue for Pune Cantt

Tuesday, 02 April 2013 07:20 administrator
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The Indian Express                       02.04.2013

Local body tax likely to generate Rs 60-cr revenue for Pune Cantt

Abolition of octroi might look like a dent in the revenue of the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB), but that is only for a short while. In the long run, the implementation of local body tax (LBT) may actually spell boon for the board that has in the recent past taken measures to multiply revenue.

The board, which has already moved an LBT draft to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) may generate a whopping Rs 60 crore a year from the new tax regime. The octroi managed to generate only 18 crore per annum.

Speaking to Newsline, vice-president of PCB Arti Mahajan said that LBT may generate close to Rs 60 crore as revenue per year. "If we deduct the expenses from the revenue, the income will still be higher than what the board earned from octroi.

The PCB, besides its other sources of income such as property tax, advertising tax, vehicle entry tax and others, was primarily dependent on octroi that it got as a share from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Till date, the civic body had been giving octroi collection of around Rs 1.5 crore per month to the board.

The PCB had recently taken steps to increase its revenue by proposing betting tax, higher VET and revised advertising model.

Despite zero octroi and the actual imposition of LBT likely to take two more months, PCB officials said the board is better placed compared to Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB), which will be banking on savings and arrears to sustain expenses till the news tax regime actually takes off.

The board will have to appoint a joint CEO as well as a set of administrators to implement the new tax regime. "We are better placed financially. We are expecting Rs 9 crore as octroi arrears from the civic body," said an official.

While the board has decided to opt for the same structure as PMC in the imposition of LBT, the tax will be charged with retrospective effect given the board is already lagging behind PMC in its implementation.

"We will impose it with retrospective effect and the traders will have an option of making payments in monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and on annual basis," an official said.

 
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