Gurgaon house owners in tax net

If you own a house in Gurgaon, you will have to pay house tax. That’s the decree passed by the Haryana government.

If you own a house in Gurgaon, you will have to pay house tax. That’s the decree passed by the Haryana government.

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Until now, in Gurgaon, only those who had tenants were supposed to pay tax. In a fresh notification, the Haryana government has brought the self-occupied houses, too, under the property tax purview.

However, the state government has exempted from paying tax the houses that measure 100 square yards or less.

According to the Gurgaon municipal corporation, about one lakh residential units would be affected by this new decree. The verdict has attracted the ire of almost all resident welfare organisations (RWAs), which are now rallying together to oppose the move.

The Joint Action Forum of RWAs (Jafra) and Federation of RWAs (Forwa) have shot letters to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to recall the decision of levying tax on self-occupied houses. Dharam Sagar, chairman of Forwa, said his association might even move court to check the state government’s step.

Haryana government officials said the state was compelled to take the decision after facing pressure from the Centre. Gurgaon municipal commissioner Rajesh Khullar said the state was forced by the Central government to withdraw its earlier notification issued in January 2008, when all self-occupied houses, irrespective of their sizes, were exempted from the tax net. “The Central government could have

withdrawn funding to various developmental projects in Gurgaon like it happened in Faridabad,” he said.

Khullar said that many house owners begun paying tax as soon as the corporation started giving out the tax assessment notices in February. “We have received about Rs. 1 crore as house tax, as many started paying it because of the 10 per cent rebate we were offering to early birds.”

Taxing Story

Residential property owners would pay 2.5 per cent of the annual rent as tax and 0.5 per cent as fire charges.

Commercial property owners would pay 5 per cent of their annual rent as tax and 1 per cent as fire charges.

Decision following pressure from Centre to not exempt self-occupied houses from tax net.