Happy days

The urban development and housing department has rolled back its decision to hike the holding tax rates by two-fold, giving relief to residents ahead of festivals.

A decision in this regard was taken on Wednesday after chief minister Nitish Kumar issued a directive. The tax hike rollback would be effective in the entire state.

“On the basis of complaints received from several urban local bodies, the chief minister today (Wednesday) issued a directive to withdraw the revised holding tax with immediate effect. The payments would now be made according to the old structure of holding tax rates,” said Rajiv Kumar, the deputy secretary of the urban development and housing department.

In a meeting held on October 29, 2012, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) board had given its nod for a hike in the holding tax, doubling the existing rate. Though the board had not mentioned any date to make the new rates effective, the PMC issued a public notice on March 30, 2013, making April 1 as the effective date for implementation of the new rates.

Since the hike has been withdrawn, residents would need to pay half of what they had been paying for the past six months.

For instance, the annual holding tax for a 100sqft fully concrete house on Boring Road would now come down from Rs 324 to Rs 162. The holding tax for a fully concrete house having asbestos roof on the same street would be lowered from Rs 216 to Rs 108.

Residents hailed the tax rollback.

“I had decided to pay the holding tax for my house after the Puja vacations. The decision of the state government to reduce the hiked rates is a welcome step because we are already overburdened with price rise this year,” said Sumit Singh, a resident of Ashiana Nagar.

If Singh was all smiles, there were unhappy souls — those who have already paid the holding tax at the higher rate.

“I paid my holding tax around a month ago according to the earlier and higher rate. I want to know if people like me, who have paid double the holding taxes, would get any refund or rebate in civic taxes in the future,” said Vinod Prasad, a resident of Khajpura.

PMC commissioner Kuldip Narayan was not available for comment. But sources in the civic body said a decision regarding a rollback of the revised rates would be taken after reviewing the notification from the urban development and housing department.