2 min readAhmedabadJul 18, 2014 01:23 PM IST
First published on: Jul 18, 2014 at 01:23 PM IST
After several protests across the city by the residents, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) on Thursday decided to reduce property tax hike by 50 per cent. It will be effective from August 1 and will be in force till the end of the current financial year only, said AMC standing committee chairman Bhupendra Patel.
The rebate will cause fall of Rs 53 crore in tax revenue. The net hike was Rs 96.92 crore. Patel said that the rebate should satisfy the public demand. He said those who already paid the tax as per the existing rate, would be taken care of. The decision was taken in the standing committee meeting held on Thursday.
If need be, the AMC will send the rebate proposal to the state government, Patel said, adding that the tax in the city was still cheaper than cities like Vadodara, Surat, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune.
When told that the agitation would not be silenced by this as people were demanding total rollback of the tax hike, he expressed hope that the rebate would be found acceptable gradually.
There are a total of 17.99 lakh properties in AMC limits as on March 31, of which 8.44 lakh (47 per cent) are facing hike in tax, while tax demand is lower on 0.62 lakh (3 %) properties. This means that there will be no effect on 8.91 lakh (49%) of properties, said the chairman.
On Wednesday, after agitations broke out across Ahmedabad on the property tax hike, state BJP vice-president I K Jadeja held a meeting with municipal BJP corporators to find a way out. The Congress had been holding protest in various parts of the city, like Vadaj, Satellite and Vastral areas over the tax issue.
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