FAQs

The corporation is governed by the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act 1949; as such it is an autonomous body, but refers to the state government on a need basis and at the centre level it falls in the Ministry of Urban Development. Matters related to Property Tax are covered in chapters 1, 8, 11 including clause 409 of the BPMC Act 1949.

Assessment book for the past few years is maintained with the Zonal Assessment & Recovery Office and can be viewed by any taxpayer during specified time period. These assessment books are kept open for the property holder every year in the month of April and the notice regarding this is published in the news papers in April. Within 15 days of publishing of such notice in the news paper, any tax payer can raise the objection regarding the assessment by submitting Vandha Application to Appellate officer. This is to make sure that in case the owner could not raise objection (vandhaa application) after 15 days of receiving khas notice (informing the assessment value of the property when assessed first time or revised) due to any reason then the owner can raise objection in the succeeding year.

Following two departments are the key department for Assessment & Recovery:

• Central Cell located at Surat Municipal Corporation, Muglisara
• Assessment & Recovery Dept at each zone office

Following are the key personnel of the above said departments:

• Assessment and recovery officer
• Appellate officer “Harkat Arji Saambhalnaar Adhikaari”

There are 39 wards defined for ease of administration of ptax. All wards do not contain equal number of properties. Ward numbers 51 to 56 are meant for government property.

Each property is defined by the unique Tenement Number e.g. 01A-01-0001-0-001. Property tax shall be levied in respect of all buildings and lands in the city except the buildings and lands vesting in the government and used solely for the public purpose and not used or intended to be used for the purpose of trade or profit, or vesting in Corporation. Pratham Kar Patra Vyakti is liable to pay the property tax.

Yes, they do invite taxes. As per BPMC Act the span of property tax is not only limited to buildings, even the land falling under the jurisdiction of the corporation is covered in it.

Components of Property tax are as under [Section-129]

1. General Tax
2. Water Tax
3. Water Charge
4. Conservancy Tax and
5. Betterment charges.

Section – 132 chapter 11 in BPMC Act in the downloads section

Section - 130 chapter 11 in BPMC Act in the downloads section

Section – 131 chapter 11 in BPMC Act in the downloads section

New guideline for the PTax has been implemented since 28.10.2002. Earlier guideline considered date of construction. New guideline only considers the location of the premises and the proximity to nearby road of specified width. The complete booklet describing location and applicable rate for the assessment is available at a cost of Rs. 10 at all the City Civic Centers.

The statutory exemption upto Rs. 600/- only in case of General Tax is applicable. Besides, the following lands and buildings are exempted under section 132[a][b] & [c].

• Lands and Buildings solely used for disposal of deads.
• Lands and Buildings solely used and occupied for public worship or public charitable purpose.
• Lands and Buildings vesting in the Government/Municipal Corporation used solely for public purposes.

There is no other exemption or assessment at reduced rate permitted.

Property can be entered for the first time into assessment register by either of following modes:

• Owner’s request: The owner can file application for the new assessment.
• Assessment Surveyor’s field visit: New property will be identified during the field visit of the surveyor.
• Other sources (neighbors or parties that are affected).
• Discovery by the Vigilance or any other department of the corporation.
• During general revision: Assessment and Recovery department carries out the revision exercise. The surveyors visit the entire city and identify new properties, and modified properties with new construction or change in use. All the property (100%) of the city are revised at every four year. In practice 25% of the properties are revised every year making 100% revision complete within 4 years.

Property needs to be assessed or reassessed in either of following circumstances:

• construction of a new building
• destruction of existing building and construction of a new building at the same place
• change in the use of the building e.g. from residential to commercial and vice versa.
• change in the building e.g. modification / extension in the building
• entry or exit of tenant.

You need to submit applicable documents from the list given below along with New Assessment Application Forms to the city civic center or the zonal Assessment and Recovery Department.

• Bill for the materials of construction
• BUC / NOC from TDO
• Certificate of completion form the architect
• No objection certificate (Raja Chitthi) for construction
• Copy of Ptax receipt
• Copy of the approved plan
• Municipal tax bill/payment receipt of the open plot
• NOC form the president of society

If party fails to apply then assessment field surveyor can include that property for assessment during field visit or at revision time. During this visit he can even assess the property with retrospective (backdate) effect and the property holder is liable to pay ptax from that date.
e.g. If your new property is occupiable in December 2001 and if you on your own apply for the assessment, it is possible that Property Tax would be calculated for the period between December 2001 and March 2001. If you fail to do so, then upon identification of your property, the assessment surveyor can charge you for the entire financial year 2001-02 (in case if you fail to provide enough evidence).

Refer the new guideline for calculating assessment

For the purposes of assessment the entire city is bifurcated in to six zones. These 6 zones will be the same as the 6 zones/areas demarcated for impact fee. The area covered under each zone would be same as it is for the impact fee. These areas have been determined keeping in view the market rate of unit area of land, in which zone A has highest market value and B, C, D, E, F have decreasing rates.

Area/zone -	1	A
Area/zone -	2	B
Area/zone -	3	C
Area/zone -	4	D
Area/zone -	5	E
Area/zone -	6	F

Each zone in the aforesaid zones have been divided into two subzones

You first need to identify in which zone your property falls. You are than required to identify the subzone applicable to your property.
e.g. Zone-1 A has two subzone

A1= land/property attached to roads having width more than12 meters

A2= land/property attached to roads having width upto 12 meters

Similarly, in other areas/zones also the sub-classification into B1, B2/C1,C2/D1,D2/E1,E2/F1,F2 is to be considered according to the width of the nearby road.

After identifying this you can refer the chart of rates applicable for different type of properties. (Please refer the Guide for assessing the property)

You have to give Vandha Application to Appellate Officer through any of the civic centers or zone within 15 days from the date of receiving Khas Notice. You can also give Vandha Application within 15 days of publishing of the notice regarding opening of Assessment Book for the review (published in local newspaper, normally in the month of April). One can raise objection in the Civil Court if not satisfied with the judgment of Appellate Officer. In case property holder is not satisfied with Property Tax Bill, he/she can raise objection in the Civil Court.

The residential portion is charged at residential rates and commercial portion is charged at commercial rates.

Please refer Present Structure

The Assessment & Recovery Department of your respective zone will help you in this regard. They will help you in checking out whether your bill has been issued or not and if issued, they will even help in getting the duplicate bill (make sure that you carry tenement number of your property). As a practice in local newspaper one advertisement describing the start date and end date for the payment of property tax bill is published for the knowledge of the concerned property tax holders.

Yes, you can specify a different correspondence address.

There is no such provision. Corporation issues one demand bill and that to the owner.

Before you come to pay Property taxes at any of the civic centers, you need to take along the bill supplied to you by the corporation. You need to carry notice or warrant if at all issued. In case you do not have these documents you can even carry old bill or receipts of payment. In the worst case if you have no such documents, you ought to know the tenement no.
Payment can be made by means of cash or cheque drawn on a local branch, preferably a MICR coded check.

Please make sure that the cheques you are submitting for payment to the corporation are crossed ‘account payee only’ and drawn in the name of Surat Municipal Corporation. Please also write at the back of the cheque your Tenement Number, Name, Telephone Number.
Please retain the property tax bill and the receipt of the payment, as it may be required for various applications to the corporation.

Following are the consequences if your cheque bounces:
18% simple interest and bank charges will be charged if the cheque is dishonoured for any reason whatsoever.
You will receive a notice from the Assessment & Recovery Department of the Zone regarding your cheque being dishonoured. You need to pay the dues including the bank charges in the specified time period. Failing so will invite legal action as per the Section 138(B) of Negotiable Instrument Act and administrative charges of Rs. 1500.

You can pay your payment by cash, cheque (in city), D.D., Postal order. Credit cards are not acceptable.

It lessens the task of recovering taxes by the corporation and the corporation passes on this benefit by giving you rebate.

One who pays taxes between 1^st April to 30^th April gets rebate of 10 % and one who pays between 1^st May and 31^st May gets rebate of 7%.

Owner is responsible for tax.

Owner is responsible so we have no concern with the tenant.

Penalty is 18 % interest, 0.5 % notice fee, 6 % warrant fee, 25 % Education cess.

In the unfortunate case of fire, earthquake or such other calamity due to which the property remains unoccupiable or vanishes entirely. The residual open plot is still liable for these taxes.

The corporation is not concerned with whether the property is being used or not for a period of time. It is also not possible to keep track of occupancy of the property. So taxes are leviable till the property is in existence.

The person on whose name the tax bill is issued is liable for payment. The buyer and the seller may mutually decide the proportion to share. On sale of the property one needs to get the name changed in the Municipal records by submitting application for name transfer.

You need to submit following documents along with application for change of name (by filling appropriate application forms available from City Civic Center) to the city civic center or the zonal assessment and recovery department.

• Copy of city survey
• Copy of Ptax bill
• Copy of Ptax receipt
• Copy of sales deed / possession receipt
• Copy of sales deed / index
• NOC form the president of society

Share Certificate issued by housing society or association.