The Government has extended the time limit set for depositing self-assessed holding tax, ending on Wednesday, by 15 more days. The decision has been taken looking at heavy rush witnessed at municipal corporation offices and large number of landholders still in queue.
“The last day for doing self-assessment of properties in various municipal corporations is ending on Wednesday. I have received representations from chairmen, deputy chairmen and other representatives requesting to extend the date. I also witnessed chaos among the people to deposit their holding tax and thus decided to extend the time for 15 more days,” said Urban Development Minister CP Singh.
The Minister had held a meeting with FJCCI on this very issue on Tuesday and other representatives over the period of time. With the decision the property holders of all the towns can complete the task till February 23.
The Minister added that the exercise to collect holding tax through self-assessment would continue with all sincerity at the offices of municipal corporations besides, the offices of ward councilors at various places. “I would also like to appeal to the people that they should not wait till the last moment this time and complete the task as early as possible. We have raised number of counters for tax collection,” added the Minister, expressing satisfaction over the turn out so far.
“The report we are getting is very encouraging. In Ranchi, as per the 2011 census there are 2,19,793 houses and 85,021 out of that have done their self assessment as of today. Interestingly, 45,800 of that had never given holding tax and are new to the tax net,” said CP Singh. The Department has managed to collect Rs 17.9268 crore in Ranchi itself in the form of holding tax while at Dhanbad the amount is `5.20 crore.
Reacting to the instances of malpractices coming in the form of staffs appointed for collecting the tax, the Minister stated firmly that the Department would be filing FIRs against such officials. “I would like to mention that any person coming across any such instance should report the matter to higher authorities and even to me. We are going to file FIR against such erring staffs,” he added and also informed that online system is being introduced in Dhanbad which would be rolled out at other places.
Answering to a quarry about dissenting voices against the steep rise in the holding taxes, the Minister justified the call since the rate was last revised way back in 1993.
“This revision is being done after 24 long years and that is why the hike is looking big. Also, politics is being done. The decision to revise the tax was taken by the Cabinet in 2013 which was to be implemented from April, 2014. The hike decided was 2.5 per cent and which was to be revised in every 3 year by .25 per cent. But we implemented it from 2016, reduced the hike to 2 per cent which would be revised in every five years,” retorted Singh.