Urban News

Hindustan Times  10.11.2010

The civic body has decided to extend the deadline for suggestions and objections from the people over the proposed switch in the property tax system — from rateable value to capital value — by 15 days. Officials said the extension, which was given due to poor public response, would delay the implementation of the new system.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had asked citizens to provide suggestions and objections on its website or at the ward office by November 16.

But the BMC has decided to extend the deadline up to November 30 because it did get enough response.

The decision was taken after BJP leader Ashish Shelar met municipal commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya on Monday.

A BMC official said: “We had planned to obtain all necessary permissions for this changeover before December and issue revised bills in the second week of December.”

Vasant Pandere, head of the department, said: “We have proposed 15 days’ extension, instead of 30, which was demanded. The municipal commissioner will take final decision over the proposal.”

Even after repeated attempts, Kshatriya could not be contacted for his comments.

The civic assessor and collection department, which handles property tax issue, planned to implement the new tax system before March 31, with retrospective effect from April 1, 2010.

The difference between the old and new bill will be adjusted in the next bills.

The new property tax based on the capital-value system will be based on the property’s current market value as well as give weightage to five other factors including area of flat, age of building, usage of land and type of construction.

Earlier, property tax was computed on the basis of rent paid by tenants.

The civic body decided to change the capital value-based property tax system in order to bring about parity in taxation.

The Hindu  10.11.2010

Demand to abolish property tax on Capital's villages

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: BJP general secretary Vijay Goel on Tuesday led a delegation of representatives of the Capital's 360 villages and met Municipal Commissioner K.S. Mehra to demand abolition of property tax in rural Delhi. The delegation also handed over a memorandum to Mr. Mehra seeking an amendment to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act for making this change.

Mr. Goel demanded that MCD immediately stop sending notices in villages and unauthorised colonies for the recovery of property tax because this was leading to a large scale corruption. “Money is being recovered in an arbitrary way under threats of these notices whereas MCD is not getting a single rupee,'' he claimed.

The former Union Minister, who had earlier issued a statement making these very demands, said when agricultural income was exempted from income tax and when proper civic amenities and facilities are missing from the villages, then how can property tax be levied in the villages?

“The fact is that no tax was recovered from the original residents of the rural areas before 2004,'' he said. Similarly, Mr. Goel added, no house tax should be recovered from unauthorised colonies till they are regularised and basic facilities such as proper roads, drinking water, drainage, electricity, community hall and schools are provided to them.

“When MCD is not spending a single rupee on unauthorised colonies, then it has no right to recover tax from there,'' he said, adding that when MCD issues advertisement for recovery of property tax, people think the Corporation is putting a burden on them. “When officers and elected councillors are approached in this regard, they say they are helpless under the provisions of the Act. When no property tax is being recovered for the past so many years, then why now? So this tax should be withdrawn,'' he said. The BJP leader said it was also strange that for houses constructed between 2008-10 in the Capital's unauthorised colonies, the owners are being asked to pay the tax from 2004.