Over 90% buildings in the city are facing the threat of paying triple property tax if plans of municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe materialize. Mundhe announced that the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) will levy triple property tax on buildings lacking occupancy certificate (OC).
He presented the NMC’s budget before the standing committee on Monday. A standing committee member told that Mundhe made an announcement in this regard in his budget speech.
On Tuesday, Mundhe said, “OC is mandatory as per building rules. There is a provision in the rules to recover two times more property tax for violation of building bylaws. Therefore, it is expected from all owners of buildings and builders to obtain OC so that they are not penalized. NMC will give them a chance to obtain OC and then start penalizing,” he said.
OC is mandatory for every building since introduction of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act, 1966. The state government had made it mandatory for all urban local bodies to recover triple property tax on unauthorized constructions since the last eight years.
NMC had levied penalty property tax only on a very few buildings. There are over 3,000 buildings which were served notices under the MRTP Act. But, the civic body did not levy penalty on all such buildings.
Congress corporator Praful Gudadhe said, “Mundhe’s decision is not justified. Over 95% buildings do not have OC. It is the mistake of NMC and NIT for not implementing rules effectively all these years. Also, a building cannot be termed as unauthorized if it lacks OC. The number of individual buildings is high, so many will suffer. Instead, NMC should hold special camps, regularize unauthorized structures in compounding scheme and then compel for OC,” he said.
BJP corporator Virendra Kukreja said, “I came to know that Mundhe announced it in his budget but it will be an anti-public move. There are many buildings which can’t get sanction due to hassles in ownership titles. It should be implemented only on flat schemes and malls, that too by allowing internal changes,” he said.
Credai president Mahesh Sadhwani said NMC should not implement it with retrospective effect. “I also feel that all buildings should have OC. Therefore, NMC should implement it on buildings which will be given sanction from now onwards. It will consume a lot time and also need many documents for getting OC for existing buildings,” he said.
Rules and lack of implementation
OC is mandatory for all buildings since introduction of MRTP Act, 1966
Over 90% buildings do not have OC in city due to ineffective implementation of rules by NMC and NIT for all these years
State government made it mandatory for urban local bodies to recover triple property tax from unauthorized constructions in 2012
It means property tax will become Rs3,000 if existing tax is Rs1,000 till demolition or regularization of unauthorized construction
NMC levied it only on a very few unauthorized buildings
It did not even levy it on buildings which were served notices under MRTP Act
Municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has announced that NMC will start levying triple property tax on buildings lacking OC
Mundhe said a chance will be given for obtaining OC first