India: An Indian state cabinet has sanctioned a budget of Indian National Rupee (INR) 2.6 billion for GIS mapping of all the C and D municipal corporations, councils and nagar panchayats in the state. The decision was taken in the Maharashtra state cabinet for mapping these urban local bodies to earn higher property tax.
Currently, the amount that is recovered is around INR 20 billion. Once the exercise is completed, the revenue is expected to double. Principal secretary Manisha Mhaiskar, urban development department, said the decision to carry out GIS mapping was taken some time back by the committee headed by the chief secretary.
“The tendering process for appointing the agency to carry out the exercise is underway but no budgetary account had been created to allow the government to spend for this project. Today the cabinet approved the planned expenditure,” she said.
Property Tax collection is low in almost all urban local bodies on account of three lacunas – properties being left out of the assessment system, under-valuation and misrepresentation such as commercial being shown as residential etc.
“The satellite mapping by the Maharashtra Remote Sensing agency will form the base for the data. A house to house survey will be carried out to get the exactly number of properties in the jurisdiction of each urban local body,” she said.
