Gandhinagar to introduce property tax

AHMEDABAD: If you stay in Gandhinagar, get ready to pay property tax now. Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation (GMC) is likely to announce on Sunday new property tax rates and factors used to assess the rates.

Like major municipal corporations, GMC will institute a property tax formula based on carpet area. This year property tax rates for residential zones have been set as Rs 10 for residential and Rs 20 for commercial properties as per the carpet area tax formula brought out by GMC.

The tax rates are a significant component in the tax formula as it is multiplied into values assigned to factors such as the age of property, type, use, and if it is self-occupied or rented. The values would range between 0.5 and 3.5 for these factors. These factors will be multiplied into the total area of the property to give the total property tax one has to pay.

Various sectors of the city have been classified as A, B, C and D classes, according to their economic importance and prevalent jantri rates. The property tax formula, whenever enforced, would be effective from April 1 this year. Citizens can write to the municipal commissioner or the mayor of GMC for any objections once the tax rates are made public on Sunday.

"This is a political issue as to which areas would be brought under various classes as it would be for the first time that Gandhinagar would be classified as 'affluent' and 'poor' areas. Besides, the total corpus for GMC is just a little above Rs 4 crore, which means that a large chunk of funds should come from the property tax," said a senior GMC official.

GMC mayor Mahendra Rana said, "Depending on the class of areas like A, B, C and D - though tax rates have been suggested between Rs 10 and Rs 40 for residential and Rs 20 and Rs 80 for commercial - we would go for the lowest of the rates after feedback from the public."