Ghaziabad civic body clears proposal to exempt defence personnel from house tax

Spelling relief to families of defence personnel, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation board has cleared a proposal exempting them from paying the house tax. The board on Friday cleared the proposal waiving house tax for defence personnel in the Ghaziabad municipal area.

The officials of the corporation said this was the first such move in the state and is aimed at giving benefit to families of defence personnel, serving and retired, and also the families of martyrs. They added that the waiver will also be applicable to personnel of the paramilitary forces.

“The board unanimously cleared the proposal for waiver of house tax component which is charged annually. It will be applicable to serving and retired personnel and also families of martyrs. We also decided to include the personnel serving in paramilitary forces as well. We have a number of such personnel residing in Ghaziabad and the tax waiver will start from the current financial year (2017-18),” said Ashu Verma, mayor.

However, he clarified that other components of the property tax — such as sewer tax and water tax — will not be waived. The corporation levies a 12% house tax and 10% each sewer tax and water tax annually, based on the annual rental value of the property.

The corporation receives nearly ₹80 crore-₹90 crore as revenue from property tax, which includes the house tax component.

Colonel (retired) TP tyagi, national president of Rashtriya Sainik Sanstha, said, “We had pursued the demand with the corporation for the past two years as it will surely uplift the morale of our personnel. The step by the corporation is welcome. We had also told them that such exemptions are also in place in Uttarakhand. The clearance by corporation is surely the first such instance in Uttar Pradesh.”

“We had also told the corporation officials that a majority of our personnel have homes in rural areas, which are located outside the corporation’s jurisdiction. So, the revenue of the corporation will not be affected too,” he said.

However, a senior corporation official said they don’t have a list of defence personnel who are residing in Ghaziabad and the proposal, even though cleared by the board, may go for a final nod from the state government.

The sources in the corporation said the request for a waiver on the house tax component was mooted after the recent incident in Sukma in Chhattisgarh where 25 personnel lost their lives in an attack by Maoists. The other incident was of the beheading of two Indian Army soldiers allegedly by Pakistani troops near the Line Of Control.