MCD tax: Netas feel differently

A day after MCD commissioner KS Mehra announced a 5 per cent increase in property tax, the political brass of the civic body said it was not in favour of adding to the burden of taxpayers, especially those from the middle-class and lower middle-class.

A day after MCD commissioner KS Mehra announced a 5 per cent increase in property tax, the political brass of the civic body said it was not in favour of adding to the burden of taxpayers, especially those from the middle-class and lower middle-class.

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Instead, it was planning to get defaulters in the tax net.

“We want more people to be brought into tax net and are working towards it. The additional taxes are just at the proposal stage,” said Mayor Kanwar Sain.

He said he wasn’t in in favour of burdening those who are paying taxes.

“The idea is to increase our revenue by increasing taxes charged from malls, 3-star hotels etc. Their turnover is huge but they are paying pittance as taxes presently,” he said.

MCD commissioner KS Mehra had on Wednesday had proposed a 5 per cent increase in the house tax rate being levied.

The increase is much more for commercial properties. For rented commercial property, tax has increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, which is almost a 100 per cent increase in the annual amount being paid as property tax, according to traders.

The increase for self-occupied commercial properties is 5 per cent from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. MCD has also proposed to bring some commercial enterprises under a special category and charge 20 per cent from them.

“We do not want to burden people belonging to the middle-class and lower middle-class. We will make changes in the proposed budget in the coming days,” said Subhash Arya, leader of the MCD House.

According to sources, the political brass is against passing the professional tax.