Mumbai suburbs join chorus against property tax bills

The voices rising from the suburbs as the property tax bills started arriving this month melded into a chorus from the rest of the city: the new system is 'draconian' and has slapped exorbitant arrears which have to be paid within March 15. Advocate Godfrey Pimenta said the first principle of law is that taxes have to be applied prospectively, and not with retrospective effect as the BMC is doing. "The law can be tested on grounds that it is irrational, illogical and detrimental to the assesses under Article 265," said Pimenta, who is organizing a discussion for better understanding of the issue on Sunday. Pimenta, a Marol resident who was paying Rs 12,000 every year, is now required to shell out Rs 28,000, plus the differential arrears for two years that comes to Rs 38,000. Some Bandra residents have got bills up to Rs 1 lakh. "The BMC is charging for open areas, security cabins, tanks for water treatment, which wasn't so earlier," said Daphne Warapen, chairperson of the Ambedkar Road advanced locality management. With rates climbing, few in the suburbs were mollified by official claims that the new system would bring parity between taxes in the island city and the suburbs. Under the rent-based system, suburban property owners ended up paying more as rents in town were mostly frozen at 1940s rates. A major concern is the ready reckoner rate which is being taken as the base to compute the capital value. In a ready reckoner, 400-500 different types of plots are clubbed together and given a uniform rate. "For example, if there is a luxurious building or a slum, all will have the same base value. Property prices depend on factors like type of construction, amenities, surroundings (proximity to airport, railway tracks, noise pollution) . The ground realities that affect prices are not being taken into consideration and that's a major fault," said Pimenta. He added that the ready reckoner rates are not easily available to the general public and the 21 days given for raising objections is not enough. Source (Linah Baliga, The Times Of India, 31 Jan 2013) : "Mumbai suburbs join chorus against property tax bills."