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Taxation

More property tax for those without water connections

Tuesday, 04 September 2012 07:10 administrator
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The Times of India      04.09.2012

More property tax for those without water connections

NAGPUR: Property owners who do not have water connections will have to pay extra property tax to make up for the delay in hiking general water tax. Owners in some good localities may have to cough up around 40% more property tax.Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has started to distribute property tax bills for this fiscal. According to information from NMC, property tax bills of owners who do not have water connections have been prepared according to the hiked general water tax.

Despite protests, NMC had not rolled back the hiked general water tax.According to data with NMC, 1,13,442 of total 4,71,442 taxpayers do not have water connections. The property taxpayers having properties with annual letting value (ALV) between 1-199 will have to pay Rs200 extra as general water tax. The NMC is charging Rs400 for properties with ALV between 200-1,000.The biggest sufferers will be property taxpayers with properties having ALV over 1,000.

They will have to pay 40% more property tax as general water tax. All properties in good localities come under category of ALV over Rs1,000. Slum dwellers and small property holders will come under ALV of 1,000.Very few of the property taxpayers are aware of the hiked general water tax. A senior NMC official said that the general water tax was hiked with effect from April 1, 2009, along with the hike in water tariff. "Water tariff was reduced after public outcry in 2010.

But the hiked general water tax was not reduced and remained as it is. There was a big controversy on the water tariff. Therefore, the property tax department did not levy the hiked general water tax on property holders without water connection. The property tax was also hiked in that period due to introduction of base rate system," he said.The official further said that NMC woke up about the hiked, but unimplemented, general water tax at the end of 2010. "NMC decided to start levying the general water tax according to the revised rates.

Now, NMC has levied the revised general water tax, that too with arrears of two years. There were many complaints from slum dwellers but not from other localities. NMC again levied general water tax according to the hiked rates, since there was no hike in the last fiscal," he said.It would be interesting to see the reaction of property taxpayers after receiving the property tax bills. A citizen from Dharampeth said he was not at all aware of any such revision in the general water tax. "We are using water from our well. Why should we pay 40% more property tax if we are not taking water from NMC," he questioned.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 04 September 2012 07:12
 

Tax collection to resume in Salt Lake

Monday, 03 September 2012 05:15 administrator
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The Times of India    03.09.2012

Tax collection to resume in Salt Lake

KOLKATA: The Bidhannagar Municipality is all set to restart the process of collecting property tax. The civic body had started collecting taxes in March, but the process had to be stalled a couple of weeks later after some confusion over tax calculation surfaced.

"We are going to restart collecting property tax soon. Tax rates will be based on the old, 2005 rates as directed by minister Firhad Hakim," said Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty.

According to the old tax structure, those who have an annual valuation of their property between Rs 1 and Rs 999 will have to pay a tax of 3.5% of the annual valuation. The tax rate will go up to 10.5% for property that has an annual valuation of over Rs 10,000 (See chart). The civic authorities are expecting to collect around Rs 9 crore in the form of property tax this fiscal.

Officials said that bills of those who have already paid their taxes will be adjusted and fresh bills will be sent to those who did not pay their bills in March. According to sources in the civic body, Bidhannagar Municipality had collected a total of Rs 6.57 crore in the form of taxes in a couple of weeks in March. "We have almost completed the process of calculating the tax rate based on pre-2005 rates and will start dispatching the bills soon," said a civic official.

Tax collection in Salt Lake remained suspended for a few years in the past. On February this year, the civic body sent a notice to the residents that the municipality will start collecting tax for fiscal 2010-11, 2011-12 and arrears from 2007 to 2010. There was a mad rush to pay taxes after the bills were dispatched. But many residents started complaining that the tax bills they received were not matching pre-2005 rates. The civic authorities then sought intervention of urban development and municipal affairs minister Firhad Hakim. The tax collection process was stopped after the minister admitted that there was confusion over the tax bills. There were some miscalculations in the tax bills that was prepared.

Highlights of tax proposal

Tax to be collected based on pre- 2005 rate

Tax bills will be sent for fiscal years of 2010 to 2011 and arrears from 2007 to 2010

Tax structure -

Annual valuation Property tax

Rs 1-999 3.5 %*

Rs 999 - 4999 5.25%

Rs 5000 - 9999 7%

Over Rs 10000 10.5%

(*of annual valuation)

Rs 6.57 crore: Tax collected in March

Rs 9 crore: Target set by the civic body this time


Last Updated on Monday, 03 September 2012 05:16
 

'Big houses to pay more tax'

Monday, 03 September 2012 05:06 administrator
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The Times of India          03.09.2012

'Big houses to pay more tax'

CHANDIGARH: The city has as many as 6,626 sprawling houses spread over one to eight kanals, whose owners will have to pay more in house tax as compared to those of smaller houses. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has compiled details of the size and number of houses in the city. There are total 20,655 big houses in the city, having an area of 5, 10, 7.5 and 15 marlas besides one to eight kanal houses. Besides these big houses, there are 49,713 Chandigarh Housing Board houses and their allottees too will have to shell out the cess.

The MC has gathered these details from the administration and now details of houses of educational institutes like Panjab University, PEC, besides PGI and houses of central offices are yet to be received. The MC is collecting data about number of houses in the city, as part of its groundwork to impose house tax.

A senior MC official on condition of anonymity said, "We have gathered the details of big independent houses and Chandigarh Housing Board houses and flats along with their sizes. Now the details will be kept before the MC's house tax committee for discussion to fix a criteria to impose house tax, but one thing is clear that big houses will have to pay more as compared to small houses and flats." He said it has still not been decided as to what criteria would be followed to impose tax, but we feel that the authority will have to look to formulate their own criteria instead of looking to adopt criteria of Haryana, which was recently implemented in the state.

M P Kohli, vice-chairman of the MC's house tax committee while taking to TOI said, "As imposition of house tax has become necessary, therefore every decision will be taken keeping in view the interests of the city residents and the MC. While Haryana has imposed house tax, Punjab's cabinet has approved its imposition and now we are mulling over the issue. As of now, we are of the view that tax should be imposed on houses as per their constructed area. The matter will come up in the monthly meeting of the house tax committee soon for a detailed discussion." Of late, the Chandigarh administration has sent reminders to the MC to consider imposing house tax on residential properties in the city and also revising property tax on commercial establishments. Not only UT, Government of India has also instructed the authority in this regard.
Last Updated on Monday, 03 September 2012 05:08
 
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