In property tax, no relaxation for farm house owners
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Now onwards, in South Delhi area, the farm house owners will not get any kind of relaxation in property tax because civic body of Delhi under DMC Act has launched a one of the most awaited drive for recovery of property tax which are in the form of dues from defaulters under the violation of strict scrutiny of other building laws as well. As per the statement of Dr Puneet Kumar Goel, who is SDMC commissioner we have been launched a special drive is for the attachment of property tax recovery which due from the side of farm house owners. The more he added that in last week, more than 29 farm houses have been attached for non-payment of property tax dues and these areas are; Kapashera, Deramandi, Daulatpur, Mehrauli, Metraon and Sultanpur.
According to Dr Puneet, under the Provisions of Section 1115 (1) (i) of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, all the vacant lands and buildings, which are in the use for agricultural purposes are exempt from the payment of any kinds of property tax and they are subject to the DMC Act of Bye-law 5. However; it is well known fact that according to Bye-law 5, the primary conditions for availing any kind of exemption, the land or property should be located in the rural or agricultural for farm activities. Whereas; there is no such exemption from payment of property tax is applicable for the owners of farm houses, as per the statement of Senior Officer of SDMC. According to the statement of Mr Ram Mohan Singh, who is assessor & collector, “Our assessment & collection department have noticed that there are many farm house owners which are still claiming that there is exemption for agricultural activities and due to that they are not applicable to pay the taxes. The more he added that during last few years we have issued more than 2,000 notices to such farm house owners and apart from that we have made more than 500 assessments for the demand for raise property tax on such defaulters, however; we have also initiated the penalty proceedings against such farm houses.
According to Mr Ram Mohan Singh, such drives has been intensified for the current financial year and till now we have issued a notices for 3,000 owners of farm houses, who are not showing any interest to pay their property taxes. As per the officials, in order to make sure the collection from such farm houses owners, till now we have attached 50 bank accounts and now we are movie towards the nest step where we are planning to auction those properties to recover the due property tax. These defaulters will also be deeply scrutinized for violation of land and other building laws as well.
As per the officials, property taxes from the from farm houses are the major source of revenue for the SDMC because many farm houses are located within the jurisdiction of the (MPD-2021) Master Plan of Delhi 2021 and it has significantly reduced the area for rural and agricultural zones in all over the Delhi. The more they have added that now we have started the door-to-door survey for all farm houses which are in our jurisdiction and soon we will start the special drive which will run throughout the year. However; there are some areas where the exemptions for rural and agricultural activities are under the Section 115 of the DMC Act and those areas have been drastically reduced in past few years.
