Property Tax Assessment & Mutation to Get Easy with New Revenue Act

In a major push towards reforms in the Revenue structure, the State government revised revenue act for ensuring hassle-free revenue administration in the larger public interest.

Impact of New Revenue Act 2020

The revenue changes would not only save property owners the hassle of transferring ownership, but it will also ease the property tax appraisal process for people residing within the limits of the GHMC.

In the past, the buyer had to visit the Citizens Service Centre in GHMC, along with a demand draft, latest encumbrance certificate, affidavits, link documents of the property, etc., to finish the proceedings. At the same period, the fee for the transformation was collected at the sub-registrations office during property registration followed by a field verification visit, which granted a mutation certificate if all conditions were met.

With the proposed policy, this whole process is completed at the time of registration of the property. When a demand draft is submitted, the buyer will be issued with the mutation certificate in support of the GHMC Commissioner with the transfer fee of 0.1 percent of the property's market value.

This is a positive development, as the manual submission of documents is a challenge in this age of e-government. Also, the change in registration would minimize the possibility of corruption. As with delay in the change of ownership have created several problems in the past within some housing societies.

Once the Self-assessment of property tax enforced, the proposed regulations would abolish the traditional method of evaluation by which tax inspectors and collectors of GHMC evaluate every property manually. The owners shall therefore analyze and apply the tax themselves. A penalty system is developed by the municipal body to verify this process.

The GHMC officer stated that, If the owner or proven false plot measurements like plinth areas are not sufficient to provide the land, heavy fines will be imposed in accordance with the municipal law. According to the Act, 25 times the real property tax is a penalty for false submission of information for under-evaluation.

For example, if the actual tax is Rs. 10,000 and the owner submits a false tax assessment report, then they will have to pay Rs 2.5 lakh in penalty. Only property outside the limits is affected by the penalty clause as of now not included in the GHMC Act.

By: Shailaja K