Gurgaon: Property owners in Gurgaon will now have to pay house tax with the newly formed Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) implementing the tax structure, applicable from next fortnight.
While self-occupied residential units will be exempted, those who have rented out their properties will have to pay 2.5% of annual value (see box for annual value) while owners of commercial, residential and institutional properties will have to pay 5% of annual value. Property owners will have to pay the amount within 30 days of getting bills.
‘‘We have been surveying the areas in municipal limit for the past four months and first list of the colonies with details of property owners is now complete. House tax is the main source of revenue for the corporation and we are levying the taxes under Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994,’’ said Rajiv Sharma, municipal commissioner.
He added his 200 staffers, who surveyed the areas, had to face stiff resistance from locals. ‘‘Since this is a new tax for people here, they were hostile. Many owners didn’t provide us with the required details. This has resulted in the delay. However, they need to understand that we are going by the rules and to work efficiently we need to collect revenues,’’ he said.
Sharma also made an appeal to residents, traders, businessmen and industrialists to cooperate with the corporation. ‘‘If they fail to pay taxes on time, penal action could be taken against them and it could also lead to sealing of the premises,’’ he said. Zonal taxation officer Laxman said that total revenue collection in current financial year could be over Rs 300 crore.
Mall owners expressed resentment over the MCG move saying it would further dent the sluggish business. ‘‘At a time when footfalls in malls have gone considerably down, additional burden of house tax will break our spine as we already pay very high maintenance charges. It will be tough to even sustain our business,’’ said Malkeet Chaddha, a garment shop owner in DT Mall.
Residents and industrialists also vowed not to pay house tax until and unless the government comes out with the expenditure detail of Rs 2600 crore collected as external development charges. ‘‘HUDA had collected about Rs 3000 crore from residents and industries. They have made public the expenditure detail of only Rs 400 crore. We can’t keep shelling out money on this pretext or the other. The state government will have to tell us where our money is going,’’ said R S Rathi, president, DLF Qutub Enclave RWA.
Meanwhile, officials in the corporation said that they had sent a proposal for a budget of Rs 325 crore to Haryana government, 25% of which was approved. ‘‘Once we start collecting house tax, the rest too will be approved,’’ said Sharma.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO PAY
How the tax is to be computed on the annual value
2.5 % of annual value for residential property
5 % of annual value for commercial, institutional and industrial property
How to arrive at annual value Annual value: 5 % of unit cost Unit cost: Cost of land + cost of building after depreciation Cost of land: Plot area (in sq yards) x collector rate (colonies have been divided into several categories for calculating this) Cost of building: Covered area (in sq feet) x rate of construction (per sq ft, fixed depending on type of construction)
Depreciation: Cost of building x age/100 (or percentage; the age will be number of years) Rebate for annual maintenance: 10 % of annual value
Industries to pay licensing fee
Gurgaon: In addition to the property tax that will have to be paid by all residential, commercial, institutional and industrial property owners (excluding self-occupied residential units), industries will also have to pay an annual licensing fee under Section 330 of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1994.
‘‘There are nine slabs for industries according to their annual turnover and they will have to pay fixed rates per annum starting this year,’’ said Rajiv Sharma, municipal corporation.
