‘Act fast or new property tax system will be passed’

After dilly-dallying on the property tax conversion system, the civic standing committee will now have to act swiftly and take a decision at the earliest or else the proposal will be deemed to be approved. Bhavika Jain reports.

After dilly-dallying on the property tax conversion system, the civic standing committee will now have to act swiftly and take a decision at the earliest or else the proposal will be deemed to be approved.

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According to the new resolution by the state government, the standing committee should decide on a proposal within 45 days, failing which it will deemed to be cleared by the civic body; the deadline ends on September 28.

The civic administration has proposed to charge property tax on the basis of capital value based on the current rateable value. Fearing that the change will hit their vote bank in the island city, political parties in the civic body have so far failed to take a decision on it.

However, members of the standing committee said that in all likelihood, the committee will reject the proposal as according to the new computation, the island city will have to pay twice more than the present amount.

Standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said that a sub-committee has been set up to deliberate on the proposal and it will decide on the issue well in time before the deadline lapses.

Considering the proposal is not approved, the civic body’s revenue estimate from the property tax collection will take a massive beating, and will have a bearing on the next year’s civic budget.

“If the standing committee and the general body approve this proposal, then we can generate bills on the basis on the new format. Currently, we are sending provisional bills,” said joint municipal commissioner SS Shinde. He also added that since April 2010, all the new buildings that have been given occupation certificate have not been charged property tax as there is no formula to calculate tax.