Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 11
Lakhs of apartment owners across Haryana, including members of cooperative group housing societies, are up in arms against the new property tax regime notified by the state government last month.

Apartment owners have alleged that they are being discriminated against regarding charging of property tax vis-à-vis independent plot owners.

“An independent house owner having a plot area of 300 square yards in A-2 cities will pay property tax at Re 0.75 per square yard, which comes out to Rs 225 per year. A person owning a flat having a carpet area of 1,400 square feet will be required to pay property tax at Re 0.75 per square foot, which works out to Rs 1,075 per year,” said SK Aggarwal, general secretary of the Joint Action Committee of Cooperative Group Housing Societies, Panchkula.

Aggarwal alleged that they were not given a personal hearing by the Surjewala Committee formed by the Haryana Government to rationalise property tax, resulting in the current anomaly. In fact, the new property tax regime had sparked off widespread resentment among flat owners, he alleged.

It was a double whammy for flat owners as they were also supposed to pay for maintenance of streetlights, power transformers, water supply and internal road network, he added.

Meanwhile, terming the new tax regime as illogical and irrational, the action committee shot off a representation to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to intervene in the matter and rectify the anomalies in property tax.

The Haryana Government recently came out with the new property tax formula on the recommendations of the high-powered committee headed by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The notification approved the slab system and divided municipal corporation towns into two categories, A-1 (Gurgaon and Faridabad) and A-2 (Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak, Hisar and Yamunanagar). Towns having municipal councils and municipal committees were categorised as B and C, respectively.

Property tax was scrapped in 2010 by the Congress government. As a consequence, the Cente stopped the release of Central grants. The Hooda Government would now be eligible to get Central grants amounting to over Rs 750 crore after the imposition of property tax, which would be payable with effect from April 1, 2010.

Taxing property

-Apartment owners up in arms against new irrational property tax formula
-Apartment owners to pay much more tax than freehold property owners
-Coop society owners never given personal hearing by Surjewala Committee
-Apartment owners urge Hooda to hold property tax notification in abeyance

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