House owners in the city who had availed themselves of the property tax sop announced by government three years ago before GHMC elections, are in a soup now. Many who benefited from property tax reduction then are receiving demand notices now for hefty sums, including tax arrears and interest thereof.
Way back in December 2015, the government had issued an order offering uniform property tax of ₹101 to residential buildings where tax assessment was less than ₹1,200 per annum. Over five lakh house owners from lower and middle income groups availed the offer.
Since many had already constructed extra floors without permission, they applied for regularisation under the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS) when it was announced the same year. While BPS applications have been shelved following a court case, GHMC is now assessing tax on the illegally constructed floors too.
J. Veeresh has a house in Hayatnagar, on which he had been paying ₹101 per annum. His application for regularisation of an extra floor raised in 2012 is pending with the corporation. “I got permission for ground-plus-one floors when I built the house in 2007, but failed to raise the first floor due to financial crunch. Later, I could complete the floor, and applied under BPS,” Mr. Veeresh said.
He was jolted out of his wits when he received demand notice this month for payment of ₹54,762, which included only about ₹13,000 under the current year’s tax. The remaining was shown as tax arrears and interest thereof since the second half of 2015-16. When he contacted the GHMC staff, he learnt that they were asked to take BPS applications as the basis for property tax assessment.
Srinivasa Murthy from Nagole too faced a similar issue. Before the exemption was granted, his property was assessed at 576 square feet by GHMC officials on which he paid ₹700-800 per annum. After exemption, it came down to ₹101. “In 2015, I applied for building regularisation after being told that it’s the slab area, and not the floor area that counts. While there is no word about regularisation, I have been orally told that I will have to shell out ₹10,000 this year,” he says.
Besides, he is being charged for 820 square feet instead of the 705 square feet mentioned in the BPS application. “When I sought to know the reason, the bill collector assured me he will bring down the area online. What he meant was obvious. We are ready to pay the dues whenever demand is raised. But the government may waive the interest, as GHMC failed to raise the demand when it was due,” says Mr. Murthy.
Officials’ version
GHMC officials, however, claim there is no link between higher bills and the BPS. “We have based the assessment on a tsunami survey done in 2016, and wherever properties exceeded the tax limit of ₹1,200, we are charging them retrospectively,” says an official.
