MAPUSA
The Mapusa civic body has asked residents of Mapusa to verify reassessment of house tax and file objections within 30 days as the municipal council will henceforward charge house tax as per the new assessment.“All the house taxpayers within the Mapusa Municipal Council are notified that their houses/flats/shops/offices have been re-assessed for the purpose of house tax with effect from April 1, 2023. They may verify the reassessment made and file objections if any within 30 days,” said Priya Mishal, MMC Chairperson in a public notice.
A municipal engineer informed that the notice is a matter of procedure and people who are interested can come to the municipal council and verify their area which has been reassessed.
Councillor Shashank Narvekar informed that people can verify whatever change in the area that has been made by the civic body when they carried out the reassessment process.
He said the reassessment process was not done properly and the tax hike will be very marginal which will not fetch much revenue to the council.
“It’s a flawed process because for reassessment the civic body should form a team of four or five people one of whom should be an architect or a structural engineer,” Narvekar said.
He said the MMC has sent municipal supervisors to reassess the house tax who can be easily taken for a ride.
The re-assessment of house tax in all 20 wards within the jurisdiction of the Mapusa municipal area had started in December last year and was supposed to be completed by January 31, 2023.
However, the work got delayed for several reasons, one of which was unavailability of staff.
The assessment of house tax has to be conducted every four years but in Mapusa it was not carried out for the last nearly eight years.
The last re-assessment work was carried out in 2014.
