The Hindu : New Delhi News : Demand to keep flats under a special category

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 12, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Demand to keep flats under a special category

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 11. The Apex Association of DDA Colonies, which represents all DDA colonies of Delhi, is now awaiting the fixation of a meeting of the Hardship and Anomaly Committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi, for looking into its long pending demand of treating all DDA and society flats differently from plotted houses and keeping flats under a special category below `E' for the purpose of calculating property tax.

The Chairman of the Apex Association, R.P. Aggarwal, who had met the OSD of the Committee, Akash Taneja, earlier this month and put forth the charter of demands, said it was essential that all DDA and society flats be stepped down by a minimum of two categories as at present the small and poor flat-owners were being discriminated against while the kothi (bungalow) owners were being given huge relief.

Also, he said this scaling down of categories was essential as flat owners generally belong to low and middle income groups or weaker sections of society.

With fixed wages or pensions to support themselves, he said, they were in no position to pay property tax, which had increased between seven and eight times under the new unit area method.

Calling upon the 4.5 lakh flat owners to refrain from paying the property tax just yet, Mr Aggarwal said it is very difficult to obtain a refund from the MCD, especially since the receipts are mostly hand-written and the ledgers are not properly maintained. Also, he said, the 10 per cent concession was inadequate since scaling down of two categories reduces the tax by around 40 per cent.

Stating that the flat owners deserve special consideration as the DDA gave them while converting lease-hold properties into free-hold, Mr Aggarwal said this was important since the flats are not as well constructed as private plot buildings, have much lower rental value and zero residual land value.

Noting that the flats avail 25 per cent of the municipal services while collectively paying four times as much property tax as paid by plotted houses, he said the factors demand lowering of category of flats under the unit area method.

In his meeting with Mr Taneja, he said the official was in agreement with the reasoning of the Association and assured the delegation of placing the demands before the full Committee and its Chairman.

During the meeting the Association had also pleaded that the issue of shortfall in revenue had more to do with the handling of the subject rather than the payments by flat owners. "The increased collection from 100 flats gets nullified by reduction in tax of a single kothi as the MCD is taking between seven and eight times more tax from the poor flat-owners and distributing it among the rich kothi owners,'' the Apex Association charged.

Citing an example of Rohini, Mr Aggarwal said a kothi for which the tax was Rs 50,000 earlier is now paying Rs 8,000 under the unit area method.

"How can such a big shortfall be covered by increase in tax on flats,'' he wondered.

With such anomalies in place and the MCD refusing to extend the last date of September 30 for payment of property tax, the Apex Association has asked all the 4.5 lakh flat owners through its 400 member resident welfare associations to hold payment until the lowering of category of flats is accepted.

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