Srinagar, July 20: Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather Friday said there was no proposal with the government to introduce property tax in Jammu and Kashmir.
 “We don’t have any such proposal at present,” Rather said.
 He said the property tax law was abolished in J&K prior to 2002. As the then Finance Minister, Rather said he had introduced a bill in the State Assembly which was passed to do away with the Act.
 The Finance Minister said the law was abolished due to several reasons. “People were facing lot of difficulties. The collection process had turned hectic and costly and moreover there were frequent complaints received by the then government about harassment,” Rather said.
 On July 13 a New Delhi based newspaper reported that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told the Planning Commission that his government would try to build a political consensus in the next legislature session over introducing the property tax.
 Omar had given the assurance to the PC at a meeting convened to finalize the state’s annual plan for 2012-13 which was approved at Rs 7300 crore.
 “I also attended the meeting (of Planning Commission) along with the Chief Minister. But I don’t think the issue (imposition of property tax) came up for discussion,” Rather said.
 The Government of India has linked the release of funds meant for development in various sectors under Jawahar Lal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) to implementation of the property tax in J&K.
 However, the State Government has been demanding from the Government of India to delink funding under urban reforms from the property tax, at least for next some years. The demand was also raised by the state government at the sixth National Conference (NC) on JNNURM which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi last December.
 Responding to a question on the issue of reforms in the State urban sector, Rather said he has no knowledge whether State Ministry of Housing and Urban Development has proposal to introduce property tax.
 “But we don’t have any such proposal at present,” he said.
 Though the state legislative assembly had earlier passed bill on property tax, it was later sent to the joint select committee by the upper house for recommendations.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST