Residents may move HC on property tax

Citizens here are unconvinced with the civic body's method of computing property taxes through the capital value-based system.

The transition to the new method of collecting property taxes, aimed at reforming the municipal tax system, has become a major cause for concern. Even senior citizens are concerned about the receipt of huge octroi bills with retrospective effect from April 2010.

Residents who have found no relief with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's reasoning, may move the Bombay High Court.

The basic concern is the base value which BMC is considering to compute the property's capital value. The base value is linked to the ready-reckoner rate, which the state government's town planning department decides, stipulating rates for various areas like residential, office, shop or commercial and industrial. In a ready-reckoner, 400-500 types of plots are clubbed together and they are given a uniform rate. The price of a property is dependent on factors like type of construction, facilities and amenities, surroundings (proxi- mity to airport, railway tracks and noise pollution).

Residents said ground realities that will affect a property's price are not taken into consideration in the ready-reckoner rates and that's where the major fault lies. The issue is already being contested in an Aurangabad court.

"We may move court with the help of residents from Marol. Paying with retrospective effect is totally unacceptable. It's not the people's fault that property tax was not implemented in 2010. They cannot penalize people. The BMC's property tax system is talking the language of builders. There is no rationale," said Rajkumar Sharma, chairperson, Advanced Locality Management and Networking Action Committee (ALMANAC), Chembur.

Anandini Thakoor, chairperson, H (West) Citizens' Trust, said Bandra-Khar residents too may move court. "We made a mention at the property tax meeting to take up our case. The only issue is we have been told by legal experts that we may be fighting a losing battle. But we hope to get relief on taxes levied with retrospective effect from April 2010-11," she said.

Source (Linah Baliga, The Times of India, 5 Feb 2013, Mumbai) : "Residents may move HC on property tax."