The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Steep hike in property tax in urban areas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 14, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Steep hike in property tax in urban areas

Special Correspondent

Commercial establishments will be required to pay more

Revision of property tax done once in five years
Proposal cleared at meeting to review tax

HYDERABAD: Property tax on commercial establishments such as shops, hotels and other business concerns in towns and cities in the State will go up steeply from October 1, while it remains the same for residential premises.

This is in line with the present norms to revise tax on these properties once in five years. The tax was last revised in 2002 with a ceiling on the hike ranging from 75 per cent to 150 per cent on residential and commercial properties respectively.

This ceiling on the hike was removed from April 1, 2007 but the Government recently decided to re-impose it. This would facilitate the authorities to revert the tax to the pre-April 1, 2007 rates but for the present, they have made it applicable to commercial properties only.

Ceiling limit

Consequently, the hike in tax on commercial properties could go up to the ceiling limit of 150 per cent over the existing rates. Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy cleared the proposal for this hike for commercial establishments at a meeting held to review property tax matters here on Thursday. The proposal was mooted by the Municipal Administration Department following representations by municipal bodies.

S. P. Singh, principal secretary, Municipal Administration & Urban Development, and Sunil Sharma, director, explained that if the property tax on buildings used for business purposes was Rs. 100 now, it could increased to Rs. 250. They said Rs 250 would be ceiling limit in this case.

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