the goan I network
MARGAO
With the Cuncolim Municipal Council going ahead with the reassessment of house tax based on the plinth area, Cuncolkars may have to soon contend with a hike in house tax manifold given that the civic body has resolved to calculate the tax as per the total area of the house as against the current practice of paying a lump sum amount as tax.
Chief Officer Shankar Gaonkar sought to downplay the proposed steep rise in house tax, saying the Council has only taken up reassessment of the houses. He, however, said there's an old Council resolution, recommending levy of Rs 5 for every square metre area as house tax on old houses and Rs 8 on houses with slabs.
While the CMC Chief Officer said the new rates are still not worked out by the civic body, sources in the civic body said the very decision to charge the house tax as per the plinth area, which includes the house walls and passages, indicates that the households may have to brace up for a hefty rise in house tax.
Given that residential households in the jurisdiction of the B Class Municipal body have been paying a fixed house tax amount, ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 200 annually over the years, any hike in the house tax based on the plinth area and per square meter rate, is set to increase the house tax by manifold.
That's not all. Unlike flats and apartments in the cities and towns, most of the households in the Cuncolim Municipal area, both old and new alike, are huge in size and area, and which may now attract a higher house tax if one goes by the CMC yardstick of calculating the tax in square metres.
This has thrown up a moot question whether a civic body is justified to hike the house tax manifold with one stroke, though the Municipality may argue that the Cuncolim civic body has been found wanting in revising the house tax since the last decade and half.
Inquiries have revealed that successive councils had never attempted to charge the households with tax based on the area and size of the structure since the time the erstwhile panchayat was upgraded into a Municipal body in 1986-87, keeping in mind that though Cuncolim was upgraded into a Municipal body, the town still resembles and enjoys all the characteristics of a village.
Cuncolim Municipal Councillor Mario Moraes, when asked to comment on the proposed steep rise in the house tax, said that he is unaware of any new rates approved by the Council. "I cannot recollect whether the Council has recommended any rates for house tax. I will first check up whether the present Council has approved any rates to calculate the house tax," he said.
