SATURDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2026
Ticker

Abolish house tax for ground floors


The Mhaje Ghar Scheme is being implemented to regularize housing and grant ownership rights to residents occupying government, comunidade, or private land. Launched in October 2025, the scheme aims to resolve long-standing land disputes and provide legal titles to thousands of Goan families, addressing decades of uncertainty. During the launch, Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed it as a landmark initiative for citizen empowerment, bringing governance “to your doorsteps.”

If the scheme successfully grants ownership rights, the government should consider abolishing house tax on existing ground-floor houses as a relief to Goans. Residents already face multiple levies”light, garbage, professional (for mixed-use homes), sewage, and potentially land and water taxes. Removing house tax would support Goans and strengthen the State’s unique socio-economic identity.

Beneficiaries will pay land conversion fees based on the year of construction”for example, Rs 25 per sq. m for houses built before 1972. This graded fee structure is key to the scheme’s fair and effective implementation.



SHARE ON

Quantum leap: Nobel honours minds powering modern tech

ELVIDIO MIRANDA via email
Published Oct 12, 2025, 12:55 AM IST
SHARE ON

Three US scientists, John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John Martinis, won the Physics Nobel Prize for their work on Quantum Physics that laid the groundwork for modern-day electronics such as cellphones, cameras, and fibre optic cables. Their work forms the basis for what is now being attempted: the building of a supercomputer that is much, much faster than traditional computers. A supercomputer is based on the theory that a superconductor does not have resistance to the…

READ MORE
Home HOME News GOA NEWS Global GLOBAL GOENKAR Search SEARCH