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Presentations on Property Tax Reforms in India 

Mr. RM Kapoor and Prof. Gangadhar Jha

Conference Hall, NIUA, New Delhi

19-20 November, 2008

Property tax is the mainstay of revenue for municipalities. However, the tax yield from this source remains low because of numerous problems: administrative problems, legal issues and corrupt practices.  A large number of properties in cities stay outside the tax due to poor information base and collection efficiencies.

NIUA is doing a project to document Best Practices in Property Tax Reforms in India. The study proposes to examine the issues reforming the property tax system in various parts of the country. To facilitate the research team of NIUA two presentations were organized by Mr. RM Kapoor and Prof. Gangadhar Jha on 19 and 20 November 2008 respectively.

Mr. R.M. Kapoor, Institute of Local Governance of Synergy, Kolkata (Formerly Director, Times Research Foundation) made a presentation detailing out the rationale of unit area method of assessment system in urban India. He also explained importance of various factors in the tax assessment like location, use, age of property, etc.

Prof. G. Jha, presently Principal Consultant-Urban in Infrastructure Professional Enterprise P Ltd. (IPE) has over 30 years experience in state and local government finance, economic development, fiscal analysis and economic review, creating enabling environment in municipal management, training and capacity building and revenue enhancement. Prior to this, he has been Professor at NIUA and Coordinator of FIRE (D) Project at the Institute. He explained in detail the three systems of property tax- Annual Rental Value (ARV), Capital Value System and Site Value System. Prof. Jha also threw light on the valuation and assessment practice, rate structure and ways of improving collection efficiency.

NIUA's research team on property tax innovation study had very useful and interesting interaction with both the experts.