When tax gets bigger than property’s worth

Imran Vadengaerwala owns a 160 yard plot in Isanpur. He purchased it five years ago, but since then, he has been making rounds of the office of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s property tax department. For five years, he has been getting a property tax bill of Rs 10 lakh, as against a maximum of Rs 5,000, he claims. Vadengaerwala says he has visited the office several times and made numerous applications, but the issue remains unresolved till date. Such is the situation that the dues have crossed over Rs 1 crore in these years.

Vadengaerwala says soon after purchasing the property, he had applied for transfer of name in the property tax bill along with the required ownership documents. However, he was shocked to get a bill of Rs 10 lakh. “The earlier chunk of land was divided into 10 parts and sold to different people. My plot is one of those. While others get a bill for just their plot, I have been getting a tax bill of the entire land,” he laments. The current dues, including the tax and the penalty over the years, stand at Rs 1,05,17,908, he says.

‘It is not even worth so much!’

A frustrated Vadengaerwala says that the actual property tax on his plot should not exceed Rs 5,000. “My neighbour’s plot is of the same size. But he got a bill of less than Rs 5,000. Even if they charge 100 per cent penalty for eight years, the amount will not exceed Rs 80,000,” he said. Out of frustration, he even offered to sell the plot to the AMC officials for Rs 30 lakh. “How can I pay property tax of Rs 1 crore for a plot that is just worth Rs 30 lakh?” he asked.

“I am willing to pay the actual tax on my property. But AMC is not rectifying its mistake. The officials only threaten to seal my plot. I have already visited the office over a hundred times,” he said.

He added that he had met DyMC Parag Shah of south zone three days back regarding the issue. When Mirror contacted Shah, he claimed he was not aware of the issue and got to know of it only on Tuesday. “I got to know about the isse today and asked for details of the case. I went through the details. There has been an error in dimensions of the plot in the bill by AMC. We shall rectify the error on an urgent basis,” he said.