Facing criticism and protests, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday said property tax would not be imposed on 40% of the people in urban and rural areas.
“The property tax in J&K is the lowest as compared to that of other states. There are around 5,20,000 houses in the cities of J&K. Out of these, 2,06,000 houses are less than 1,000 sq ft and no tax is being imposed on the same,” L-G Sinha said.
The Lieutenant Governor was speaking while inaugurating the GST symposium and tax awareness initiative ‘Kar-Tavya’ for industries and traders’ association and other stakeholders at the Convention Centre in Jammu.
“As many as 2,03,600 houses have less than 1,500 sq ft area and 80% of these households will have to pay less than Rs 600 tax per annum. This amount is one-tenth of the tax amount being paid in Shimla, Ambala and Dehradun,” the L-G said.
He also said that 46,000 out of 1,01,000 shops in the city areas of J&K were less than 100 sq ft and they will have to pay up to Rs 700 per annum. “30,000 shops will have to pay taxes below Rs 2,000 per annum and out of these, 20,000 will have to pay less than Rs 1,500 which is also one-tenth of the amount being paid in Shimla, Ambala and Dehradun,” he claimed. He further said the revenue collected would directly go to the accounts of municipalities and corporations.
