AMC asks for vacant land tax in its budget proposal

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

Finance panel for 12% GSTNew direct taxes code likely to hit PFC opsNSSO to estimate GST taxpayer baseProposed MAT rate could be cut by 1%

Ahmedabad, Jan 25: If everything goes well as planned, vacant land owners in Ahmedabad will soon have to pay tax as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has proposed vacant land tax in its budget proposal for the fiscal 2007-08. The move is aimed at checking surging land prices and providing residential land to middle class.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on Thursday proposed a Rs 2,256.88-crore budget for the fiscal 2007-08, which also includes Rs 1,371.55 crore for undertaking various development project.

Announcing this proposed vacant land tax, IP Gautam, municipal commissioner, AMC, said, “We have proposed taxing vacant land in the city and this new tax is estimated to rake in Rs 50 crore of revenue to the municipal corporation. Apart from the vacant land tax, AMC has also proposed marginal increase in property, water and sewerage taxes, which will fetch additional Rs 34 crore to the corporation.”

He also said that the corporation’s revenue during the year 2007-08 is estimated to be around Rs 1,378 crore for the next fiscal, which will be 24.24% higher than the revised revenue estimate of Rs 1,109 crore during the 2006-07.”

The budget proposal for 2007-08 also has a provision of Rs 1,375.55 crore for various development projects in the next fiscal. AMC also plans to construct elevated corridor for buses to ease the traffic congestion in Kalupur area of the city.

This dedicated corridor will be a part of the ongoing bus rapid transit system (BRTS) project and it would cost around Rs 150 crore to the corporation.

The Centre for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) has been mandated to prepare a development plan for the proposed corridor. He added that 2.8 km long elevated corridor for buses is planned from Sarangpur to Delhi Darwaja, and the detailed project report would be submitted to Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNNURM).