The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) has mooted a proposal to levy property tax under three heads — residential, commercial and mixed properties — at an executive meet held on Wednesday. The corporation has hired an agency that is carrying out a geographic information system (GIS) survey to identify properties for taxation. It is expected to identify 1.5 lakh new properties, which will help boost GMC’s income.
The budget for 2021-22 was also discussed in the meeting, in which GMC’s proposed income has been pegged at Rs 1,119 crore while expenditure is Rs 829 crore. The proposal will be placed before the GMC board later.
“The focus is on increasing GMC’s income. For that, a survey is underway to identify properties under all heads — residential, commercial and mixed properties. This will enable us to identify properties which miss our radar in traditional ways of surveying and we hope to identify 1.5 lakh such properties which will help us raise more revenue,” said a GMC official.
The corporation was earlier dependent on the traditional way of identifying properties liable for house tax, under which GMC surveyors were entrusted with the job. This left scope for anomalies in the form of surveyors missing out on some properties, but in the absence of any other system, that went on till now.
To do away with the anomalies, GMC has hired an independent agency, which is using GIS mapping to conduct the survey. The agency will use GIS to map all properties in Ghaziabad and will submit its report to GMC by June, after which the corporation will tally the properties by appointing its own surveyors to conduct physical verifications.
Speaking on the proposed budget, the GMC official said: “We hope to raise Rs 1,119 crore, while an expenditure of Rs 829 crore has been proposed, out of which Rs 197 crore will go towards construction activities, Rs 133 crore on health and solid waste management, Rs 83.5 crore on water and sewer network and Rs 31.5 crore on horticulture.”
