Mayor Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) Rajinder Sharma on Friday said that the proposed property tax will not be imposed in Jammu from April 1 as the corporation has not yet registered all the households.
As per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), Sharma while speaking to the media person on the sidelines of an event, said, “For imposing property tax, JMC has to register all the households in municipal limits.”
“JMC will provide digital door numbers and QR (Quick Response) codes for every house, which is still under the process, so we are not imposing the property tax from April 1,” he said.
On people’s opposition to property tax, the mayor said, “There is no opposition to the tax and people have accepted that for progress, they have to pay nominal taxes.”
The mayor said that the Jammu Kashmir administration has invited suggestions for property tax and people should submit them to the government.
Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir administration notified rules for the levy of property tax in towns and cities of the Union Territory with the declared intention of making urban local bodies self-reliant in development works. It said the tax is levied everywhere except J&K, where urban local bodies remain entirely dependent on government funds.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also maintained that UT is the last in the country to come under the purview of property tax. He said there was no state or city in the country where property tax had not been imposed.
“Jammu Kashmir was last in the imposition of property. We have imposed the tax after due consideration and with sensitivity,” Sinha said while replying to a question at a press conference on Wednesday.
The LG drew a comparison with neighbouring states and said there was no tax effect on 40 per cent of the residents in cities.
“There are 5.20 lakh houses in cities. Out of them, 2,03,600 houses will only have to pay Rs 1,000 in a year. There is only some area of specific cities, the rest of the houses will have lesser tax,” he said—(KNO)