Vizag Residents Urge CM Naidu To Restore Rental-Based Property Tax

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnaman Apartment Residents' Welfare Association (VARWA) and Greater Visakha Resident Colony Associations' Federation (NIVAS) have asked the Andhra Pradesh government to abolish capital value based property taxes and restore the old system of rental based property tax.

In a representation to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, VARWA general secretary BB Ganesh and NIVAS general secretary Pitta Narayana Murthy said the rental value based house tax was changed to property value based property tax by the previous regime in the year 2021. "This is highly unjust and unscientific. The house tax which is supposed to be levied every year should be based on the rental income only. If the owner lets the property, he will get the rent and if he stays in the house, he will save the rent. Therefore, levying house tax based on the rental value of the house is only justified, they stated.

House tax levied every year, which has no relevance to the value of the property. It is because the owner of the property gets the value of the property only when he sells the property. But at that time, he loses the ownership of the property. Therefore, it is no way justified to charge the property tax based on the value of the property.

We trust, you would agree that nobody should be forced to sell away his property just for paying the yearly house tax, they pointed out.