Defer hike in property tax by one year: VCCI

Talking to media persons here on Thursday, G. Veeramohan and Ravi Gdey, VCCI president and secretary respectively, suggested that the government could hike the taxup to a maximum of ten per cent from April 2022

Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry has appealed to Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy to defer the decision to increase property tax by one year.

Talking to media persons here on Thursday, G. Veeramohan and Ravi Gdey, VCCI president and secretary respectively, suggested that the government could hike the taxup to a maximum of ten per cent from April 2022.

“Yesterday, the Government announced the schedule for implementing the G.O. on property tax which has caused panic among the people. As per the schedule, the action plan starts from today and the final notification will be issued by February 28. According to the new G.O., the property tax will be levied up to a certain percentage on the capital value of lands or buildings or both not less than 0.10% and not more than 0.50% of the capital value in case of residential buildings and shall not be less than 0.20% and not more than 2.00% of the capital value in case of non-residential buildings, which shall be effected from the financial year 2021-2022. Due to this, a 1000 sft flat can be taxed between Rs.5000 to Rs.25000, and a commercial property can be taxed from Rs.12000 to Rs. 120000. The variation in percentage is scary and Vizagites feel that they will fall under the higher slab and the increase will be around 10 times,” they said.

They stated that due to COVID, the rental values all over the state fell by 20 per cent for residential buildings and 50 per cent for commercial buildings. In fact, many commercial establishments were closed and there was no income on these properties. The building owners were expecting a relief from the Government in line with the Telangana Government and increase of taxes from April 2021 will be a huge burden in these difficult times, they pointed out.

The VCCI leaders felt that without local bodies, the Government might not be in a position to know the ground realities. In these difficult times people are not in a position to take any increase of taxes and many were suffering from health issues, loss of jobs, salary cuts, medical expenses and financial crisis, they noted.

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