MAPUSA
In bid to manage construction and property tax, the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) has started work to conduct a detailed survey of properties in order to geo-tag all houses and structures in the Mapusa municipal area.
The Mapusa civic body on Friday informed that Kolbro Group Pvt Ltd has started the process of tax assessment and re-assessment of individual houses, buildings, shops, bungalows etc within the jurisdiction of the municipal area.
The municipality has requested the residents to cooperate with the employees/surveyors of the organisation who have been provided with identity cards.
“The surveyors of the organisation will come to your property to take measurements, photos and other information. They should be provided with factual and truthful information,” said Chandrakant Shetkar, Chief Officer (CO) of Mapusa Municipal Council.
The residents have also been directed to produce property documents and ID cards if demanded by the surveyors for the government work.
GSUDA had initiated the process of developing a geographic information system (GIS) based software application to manage construction and property tax related administrative work of the civic bodies.
Some of the functions proposed in the application include conduct of detailed survey of properties for tax assessment, checking unauthorised construction, generating a QR code of dwelling units for house tax collection as well as to manage solid waste collection and disposal.
The Mapusa Chief Officer in a public notice has said the surveyors may ask the following documents: Form D, property tax and water bill, trade licences, Identity Card (Aadhar card/Pan card/Voting card/driving license), documents of property, building permission copy, building completion certificate copy, name of owner/occupier/tenant and name of shop holder, area of shop and property/shop if leased, monthly rent and date of lease deed.
“If the original copies of the documents are not submitted then the property (building, shop, bungalow, individual house etc) tax will be levied as per the available information as per rules,” Shetkar said.
Incidentally, the Mapusa Municipal Council through its staff has recently completed the house tax assessment exercise in the municipal area.
Local residents wondered whether the GSUDA job was a repetition of the same exercise.
“This survey is not for house tax assessment for next four years for which the civic body has already completed the process. The agency will do a survey of physical structures which will be geo-tagged and the relevant data will be used for future work,” Shetkar informed.
GSUDA is the nodal agency for assessment of property tax in the jurisdiction of civic bodies including the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP).
