Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 12: The Government has constituted a high level Ministerial committee to appoint Chairman and members of the long pending Property Tax Board, which had to study various models of property tax before recommending its imposition for first time in the State.
Imposition of property tax was one of the various urban reforms recommended by the Government of India for implementation in the State, which have been linked to release of certain specific grants. Holding elections to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) was another reform.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the high level committee, which has been mandated the task of appointing the Chairman and members to the Property Tax Board, would be headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and comprised Urban Development Minister Rigzin Jora and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Saifullah Mir.
The panel was expected to meet shortly to deliberate on the names before it for appointment as Chairman and members of the Board to make it functional and do rest of the job.
“The Property Tax Board would be constituted as soon as its Chairman and members were finalised by the high level Ministerial committee,” sources said.
An Act to constitute the mandatory Property Tax Board for imposition of property tax in the State has already been passed by the Legislature after various hiccups including blocking of the bill in the Legislative Council.
Sources said soon after the Property Board was made functional it would study various models of property tax across the country and recommend some of them, which were suitable for the State, for implementation.
“Various States across the country have adopted different methods for imposition of property tax. The Board would study all available models, select few of them and place them before the Government for implementing one of them,” they added.
Sources were of the view that the slabs proposed for property tax in the legislation were not found fit for implementation in view of discrepancies. The experts, who had studied the bill, were of the view that majority of the population would be left out of purview of the property tax if the legislation was implemented in its original form.
They added that the Property Tax Board would suggest the tax slabs in such a manner that the people were also not burdened and the Local Bodies, which had to implement the tax, also earned revenue for them. “A balance has to be maintained as the tax was being imposed for the first time”.
Sources confirmed that the Local Bodies would be the ultimate agencies in implementing the property tax.
Already, the experts are raising some question marks over implementation of property tax in the State during current year. The experts were of the view that the Government could delay imposition of property tax on some pretexts as the Alliance partners would fear losing votes in crucial year of 2014 when both Parliament and Assembly elections were scheduled in the State.
But at the same time, the Government of India has been blocking some grants of the State for delaying implementation of urban tax reforms including property tax.
Jammu and Kashmir is among the few States in the country, where the property tax hasn’t been implemented so far, sources pointed out.
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