Citizens are felt robbed of their hard-earned money as the Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) Revenue Department started tax collection by adjusting differential rates of present and past property tax. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporators staged a demonstration at RMC Headquarters, accusing the Corporation of collecting extortionate property tax. Leader of Opposition Suryakant Rathore stated RMC Revenue is assessing property tax based on a GIS survey conducted by a Delhi-based company Consodium. There is a vast difference between the present and past rates of the property tax, which is causing a lot of confusion among people.
Assessment of property tax is a self-assess process under the Municipal Corporation Act, under which tax estimate is calculated in accordance to property details filled up by the tax payers. But, presently it has been done through the GIS survey, which goes against the Act.
GIS Survey applies 100 per cent instead of 15, 20 and 25 per cent for first, second and third floor respectively. There has been an assessment from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 on small flats of 400 to 500 square feet size. Water tax from residential buildings is being collected at commercial rate and the water tax has also been added to the property tax of those homes and flats which have no tap connection yet.
Many land areas have been estimated far above the real size, water tax from small shopkeepers has also been increased from Rs 2,400 to Rs 4,200. Residential areas of those middle class families who run small shops like grocery stores, general stores etc are being subjected to commercial water tax rate.
Tax payers who once used to take benefits of 6 per cent discount on paying tax before December have also been deprived of its benefits. Revenue Department officials/employees aren’t ready to accept the property tax
information published on newspapers and reported on electronic media and they are asking for written order.
It’s completely unjustified to collect the tax based on the old tax receipts and GIS survey, whichever is higher, on the
verbal order of the RMC Commissioner. There are massive errors in the GIS survey-based tax collection, which needs to be fixed. RMC hasn’t taken any action against the company despite paying Rs 2 crore for the survey.