Property tax is said to be the major source of revenue for the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD). To enhance property tax collection, routine steps like revision of tax rates and first-time steps like collecting tax according to commercial rates from private schools were taken by the corporation. However, surprisingly the offices of the national political parties have been allowed to function without a single paisa having been paid in property tax to the MCD. Also, the rent paid by some of the political parties for their offices hasn’t been revised for decades and is minimal even for buildings in prime locations of the city.
According to official sources, after the self assessment system was introduced for property tax in 2014, the MCD sent notices to various parties seeking necessary information about the property these parties are using as offices but neither the information nor the tax was paid by the political parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State office on Balbir Road was given the notice by MCD in the year 2015 seeking relevant information for self assessment to facilitate calculation and payment of property tax. Similar notices were issued at the same time for the Congress Bhawan on Rajpur Road and the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) office on Kachehri Road. While the UKD office is stated to be the focus of an ongoing dispute, the two national parties neither responded to several notices issued to them nor paid property tax.
Apart from the non-payment of property tax, the rent of some of the party offices is also very low. The rent paid to the MCD for the BJP Mahanagar office adjoining Parade Ground is a mere Rs 500 for the whole year. The rent for the Samajwadi Party situated on a corner of Parade Ground is Rs 250 per month which amounts to 3,000 a year. Similarly, the rent for the Bahujan Samaj Party office at Darshanlal Chowk is Rs 192 per month which amounts to Rs 2,304 a year.
Talking to The Pioneer, Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ said, “It is very important that every organisation which is bound to pay property tax does so on time.This information about property tax on political parties’ offices was not in my knowledge but now appropriate steps will be taken on this issue too. Also, if the rent for these properties has not been revised for long, we will table a proposal for it in the upcoming board meeting.”
Meanwhile, observers point out that such leniency in property tax payment might not have been witnessed had the properties in question been occupied by a commercial or non-political entity. The rent for properties occupied by political parties in prime, high value locations have not been revised since the State of Uttarakhand was created. This would not have been the case had the tenant not been a political party.