Urban News

The Pioneer  04.11.2010

Parvaiz Sultan | New Delhi

The new infrastructure has given an opportunity to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to levy fresh service and property taxes on the re-structured/altered stadiums falling under its jurisdiction.

Stadiums like Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Yamuna Sport complex and Thayagraj Stadium will now have to pay more taxes as all of them have made several modifications as per the provisions of the Delhi Municipal Act.

“We will write to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and convene a meeting with their representatives also for reconciliation. For the Games (Commonwealth Games), various alterations have been made in the structures. In some the covered area has also been expanded. They will need to pay tax for the current assessment year after appropriate computation for the area,” said a senior MCD official.

The senior official of Assessment and Collection Department further said the corporation will also send a communiqué to Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), as both the universities have also made amendment in their respective sports ground. While Delhi University sports complex was venue for rugby, the JMI had been designated as training venue for rugby and table tennis.

It was further told that a letter in this regard had already been sent to concerned authorities almost two months ago but the civic body did not follow up because of the ongoing sporting activities. However, the MCD made it clear that the SAI was a regular tax payer and no dues were pending in its name. “Last year, SAI paid Rs 3.60 crore as tax. No issues with them. Though, there is some dispute with DDA but the case has been referred to the Solicitor General for seeking legal opinion,” he said.

The MCD official added that with the new computation of tax after measuring open and covered area, tax payable to the body may also be reduced. “As per the present arrangement, the corporation is eligible to levy tax for vacant land along with the covered area. If 75 per cent land is unoccupied, the body charges certain amount of tax. In case the area of vacant land reduces after expansion or more than 25 per cent land has been covered or structure has come up on that, they are not liable to pay service tax for unoccupied land to the MCD,” said the MCD official.

Indian Express  02.10.2010

Corporators back tax rebate for armed forces personnel, BMC nod awaited

A proposal to provide a rebate on property tax for serving and retired armed forces personnel is awaiting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s nod. The proposal was cleared in June in the civic body meeting by corporators unanimously.

“Retired and serving personnel of armed forces are not exempted from property tax,” said V D Pandere, Assessor & Collector. He added, “Although such a proposal had been mooted, nothing is finalised yet.” According to officials, about 2500-3000 properties of serving and retired defence personnel are under the BMC tax net.

Following the example of neighbouring municipal corporations of Thane and Navi Mumbai, the BMC had also passed the proposal in June this year. Under the proposal, soldiers, ex-servicemen and family of former armed personnel who passed away were supposed to get rebate on property tax.

However, the administration has so far not acted on implementing the proposal which has been represented time and again by various associations of defence personnel over the past few years.

According to members of the Ex-Servicemen Organisation, Mumbai Region, the Thane Municipal Corporation has already started implementing the proposal to completely exempt retired armed forces personnel from property tax. “This should also be implemented by BMC too,” said Daljit Singh Anand, retired air-force personnel and a member of the Ex-servicemen Organisation, Mumbai Region.

“I have served my country in the 1971 Bangladesh War and on various other occasions. At least the administration needs to be respectful of such facts and exempt us from property tax,” said Anand. “The administration can show some recognition and appreciate our efforts by giving such rebates,” said another member B L Gupta, retired from Indian Navy. “This would help some families to ease off their financial burden”, said Gupta.

“Requests from various associations have been pouring in but until now no official decision has been taken,” said BJP Corporator and Improvements Committee Chairman, Manoj Kotak. The proposal is yet to go to the Standing Committee.

“A rebate of 30-35 per cent can be given under such a proposal as that would not affect the property tax collections significantly,” said a official from Assessment & Collection Department. “However, implication of a complete exemption is yet to be studied,” he said.

The BMC has already dispatched property tax bills for this year in September according to the old rateable value system. “Bureaucracy and red tapism has delayed such a important proposal and the BMC should have looked into the matter seriously and given due respect to the service provided by armed forces,” said Kotak.

Recently municipal corporations in other states such as Punjab, Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have also implemented such a proposal.