Department report to steer non-agricultural land tax decision, says revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil

PUNE: The state government is waiting for a detailed report from the additional chief secretary of the revenue department to take a final call on excluding housing societies in urban areas from paying non-agricultural land (NA) tax.

The tax is applicable to societies that fall under gaothan areas in the municipal corporation or municipal council areas. State housing federation members had demanded the scrapping of the tax.

Revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Saturday said that such a move was under consideration. "We will take a decision based on the report. The government is closely examining it and will arrive at a decision soon," he told TOI.

Additional chief secretary of the revenue department Nitin Kareer was told to submit a detailed report to the government after a meeting last week.

Kareer told TOI that the final round of deliberations were going on after which the report will be submitted.

There is a stay on collection of these taxes. "The stay continues and there has been no action on any society to pay NA tax as of now," Kareer said.

Housing societies are worried that they would have to pay huge sums, the housing federation's vice president Suhas Patwardhan said.

"We are hoping that the government takes a favourable view of NA tax applicability. They should scrap these taxes as it is a huge burden when societies are already paying property tax," he said.

Vijay Sagar, convenor of Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, said that the state seems to be inclined to withdraw the NA tax. "Collection of double taxes is illegal,"'he added.

Advocate Satya Muley said societies are paying double taxation for the same land. Provisions of Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (NA tax) are resulting in mechanical classification and discrimination for levying and collecting tax for lands of residential sites in the proximity or within the same village, town or city, he said.

Satya Muley
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