CP shopkeepers want uniform tax method across Delhi

New Delhi

After the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) attached more than a dozen shops, showrooms and restaurants in Connaught Place this week due to non-payment of property taxes, the New Delhi Traders Association, in a meeting on Thursday, underlined their demand seeking a uniform unit-area method of taxation in Lutyen’s Delhi, instead of the comparative rent system.

Atul Bhargava, NDTA head, said traders are not against the recovery of tax dues, but want a “just and fair” system of taxation. “One city, one tax is our basic demand. We will approach our new MLA Parvesh Verma and flag this issue. MCD implemented the unit-area method in 2004 but NDMC is still using the obsolete method,” he said.

Bhargava said the association will move court if there is no progress.

“A second demand that has been commonly arrived at was one property tax ID should be provided to one shop. Currently, one property has multiple shops. If one has not paid tax, others also get impacted,” he said.

Presently, for the assessment of property tax, NDMC employs the actual or comparable rent and unit-area method (UAM). Introduced in 2009, UAM is used by 90% of taxpayers, and they have not challenged the method in any legal platform, said officials. The rest are assessed on the basis of comparable or actual rent methods.

Two years ago, a proposal to implement the unit-area method was sent to the Centre by NDMC, as changes in the tax calculation system require an amendment to the NDMC Act, but no progress was made, despite the ministry seeking some clarifications from NDMC and the council replying to the same.

An official, not wishing to be named, said that the matter is under consideration, advice is being taken, and modalities are being discussed, but no decision has been made so far. “However, we didn’t get any representation from traders on Wednesday, and action will continue against defaulters,” the official said.

NDMC did not respond to requests for comment.