Jammu, Feb 24: A delegation led by Rahul Sahai, Chair PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry called on Rahul Yadav, Commissioner Jammu Municipal Corporation today to discuss and deliberate on the various issues related to the newly introduced property tax in J & K.
On the occasion, Rahul Yadav, gave a detailed presentation related to the implication of Property tax in J & K. He briefed about various factors involved in calculation of the Property Tax, a statement issued to Ziraat Times said.
Related to property tax Rahul Sahai suggested that all the leased properties should be exempted from property tax and if applied should be free hold first. He suggested that Industry should be exempted from property tax. Gair mumkin khads, lands near Army walls should be exempted from property tax, industrial areas of SIDCO / SICOP should be exempted as they are not using municipal services for garbage cleaning. He also said that notified commercial rates are too high.
Mr Sahai said mostly minimum property size of residential area is 7 , 10 , 12 marlas and 1 kanal rates for tax should be fixed approximately as per size of the plot and allowed construction area and no officials should enter houses to measure because lot of elderly people are residing in residential areas and these practices will give leverage to corruption and harassment of people.
Mr Sahai also said our minimum commercial shop size is between 400 to 700 sq ft , so 100 sft theory doesn’t work here, minimum charges should start from 400 sq ft to 700 sq ft unlike other states and UTs .
Sahai said there should not be any scrutiny , rather one rate for a plot size should be fixed so that no harassment should be there.
Several queries by PHDCCI members related to Property tax were put forth by Chair, like how to calculate depreciation, where tax revenue will be utilised. By when to do self declaration , whether scrutiny is also there or not, Mr Yadav answered all the queries asked by the delegation and informed that all the areas under municipal limits will come under property tax.
Samar Dev , Co Chair PHDCCI Jammu said that there should be a proper budget allocation of the tax collected and it should be utilized for various developments projects other than already going on also suggested that social media flyers, videos should be made and circulated for mass awareness of the people related to this tax. Also more and more interaction with associations and other stakeholders should be held with a person from JMC to educate on property tax.
Mr Raj, member PHDCCI Jammu, informed that SIDCO & SICOP is itself cleaning drains and lanes of the Industrial areas so these areas should be not be covered under property tax. He said that the comparison of property tax in J & K with other states is not justified.
Ashwani Pandoh suggested that there should be fixed rate of tax as per the area and not according to built up structure as people can’t calculate the area on their own . This will increase inspector Raj .
Mr Sahai said that all the previous disputes of properties for example properties sold on attorneys is a matter of dispute as far as this tax is applicable and there is a need to have a solution of those disputes first.
Mr Rahul Yadav, gave a patient hearing to all the issues, suggestions, recommendations given by PHDCCI Jammu and said that he will forward these to higher authorities for their consideration.
