Gondia to reassess property tax after years of stagnant valuations

Property tax assessment in Gondia city had not been carried out for many years. This meant there had been no fresh check for a long time on how many properties actually exist in the city and how much tax applies to them. As a result, the municipal council was missing out on significant revenue from property tax. After the council administration took note of this, work on property tax assessment was taken up, and the actual work began on Monday, the 8th.

Revenue from property tax makes up a large share of the funds needed to run the municipal council's day-to-day operations. However, Gondia municipal council had been deprived of this important source of income. Taking note of this, the council decided at its general body meeting to reassess properties, and tenders were invited accordingly. In this process, the contract for property tax assessment was awarded to a Nagpur based company, Colbro Private Limited. The company began actual work on Monday, the 8th.

The company has been given a period of nine months for this work. At present, 46,318 properties are recorded on the municipal council's records. However, since these too have not had their tax reassessed for many years, tax is still being collected at the old rates, meaning that as property valuations have stayed the same year after year, the tax charged on them has also remained just as old. During this period, urbanisation has taken place and the city's population has also grown, so the actual number of properties in the city is likely higher than the 46,318 recorded. At present, the council can only collect tax from properties that are on record, and since newly built properties are not registered, tax cannot be collected from them. Once this assessment is complete, such newly built properties will also come on record, which will increase the amount coming into the council's treasury.

The council has reportedly given Colbro the contract at a rate of about Rs 1,200 per property, meaning the company will be paid this amount for surveying and recording each property in the city. Work on numbering properties is currently underway, for which 25 employees of the company have arrived in the city. Once the pace of measurement and other work picks up, the company will increase the number of employees. It has been made clear that the company has been given nine months for this entire task.