Urban News

The Hindu 27.11.2009

Decision on property tax likely next week

Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE: The Department of Urban Development is likely to take a decision next week on the revised property tax rates approved by the council of Mangalore City Corporation under the self-assessment scheme (SAS).

With only four months left for the current financial year to end, the number of taxpayers turning out to remit the taxes at the corporation is meagre even as a majority of property-owners seem to be waiting for the final word on the tax rate from the Government.

Minister for Urban Development S. Suresh Kumar, while interacting with councillors of the corporation here on Wednesday, stated that he would convene a meeting of the officials in Bangalore on Monday or Tuesday to take a look into the taxes revised by the council.

The meeting would also look into the issue pertaining to the revised master plan for the Mangalore local planning area. The Minister said that the meeting would discuss ways to make transfer of development rights (TDR), given as special incentive to owners who surrender land to the State, more attractive.

The Minister said that since land was required for widening roads, there were demands to revise the TDR.

C&R Rules

The draft of the Cadre and Recruitment Rules applicable to employees of city corporations was ready.

It was now before the Finance Department. It would be announced once the Finance Department approved it, he said.

The Hindu 26.11.2009

JNNURM: tax on unoccupied houses

G.V.R. Subba Rao

VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has prepared property tax assessments for about 1,100 houses constructed under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). What is interesting is that none of these houses have either been handed over to the beneficiaries or occupied by them.

The town planning wing of the corporation is still in the process of completing the documentation for the houses for the identified beneficiaries. The houses have not been handed over to them for various reasons, including non-payment of the beneficiary’s contribution and not signing the bank loan agreement. The beneficiaries have to pay Rs. 10,000 as their contribution for allotment of a dwelling unit, and also agree to repay a bank loan of Rs. 30,000. The tax “levied” by the VMC ranges from Rs. 70 to Rs. 90 per half year, depending upon the type of house “allotted” to the beneficiaries. The amounts are clearly against the laid down rules and procedures. The Corporation can collect just Rs.2 per half year from JNNURM housing beneficiaries as the houses constructed are meant for urban poor. Section 202 A of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Act, which applies to the VMC, stipulates that only a tax of Rs.2 should be levied on the houses constructed for urban poor. The Corporation officials argue that the property tax assessments have been prepared with a view to providing water and electricity connections.

Adding to burden

The argument goes against the earlier plan to form associations of JNNURM house owners and provide water facility through group connections. Water supply to these houses will have to be ensured by the Corporation as it is government housing not individual constructions, says Ch. Babu Rao, CPI (M) floor leader in the VMC general body. The amount of property tax levied may appear insignificant, but is likely to add up to a total burden of Rs. 35 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh per annum on the 21,000 families that will take over these houses. The Centre sanctioned a total of 21,752 houses for Vijayawada under Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP), a sub-mission of JNNURM. Of these, 14,968 houses are proposed to be taken up under phase-I and 6,784 under phase-II. The VMC has so far allotted more than 3,000 houses to the people evicted from places like Padmavathi ghat and a few other places. However, documentation could be completed only in the case of about 2,000 beneficiaries, and the same in the case of the remaining beneficiaries would be completed in the next couple of weeks, officials say.