RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND WATER CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT
Bandhkam Bhavan, 25, Marzaban Path, Fort, Mumbai 400 001,
dated the 31st December 2015
NOTIFICATION
MAHARASHTRA VILLAGE PANCHAYATS
MAHARASHTRA VILLAGE PANCHAYATS ACT. No. VPM.2015/C.R. 140/PR-4(22).—Whereas by Government Notification, Rural Development, and Water Conservation Department, No. VPM-2015/CR-140/PR-4 (22), dated the 21st November 2015, the Government of Maharashtra had published the draft of rules further to amend the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Taxes and Fees Rules, 1960, which the Government of Maharashtra proposes to make in the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (xxvi) of sub-section (2) of section
176 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act (III of 1959), as required by subsection (4) of section 176 of the said Act, for the information of all persons likely to be affected thereby; and
notice had been given that the said draft would be taken into consideration by the Government of Maharashtra on or after the 7th day of December 2015 ;
And whereas the Government of Maharashtra has received objections and suggestion to the making of such rules and having considered them;
Now, therefore, in the exercise of the powers conferred by clause (xxvi) of sub-section (2) of section 176 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act (III of 1959), and of all other powers enabling it in On this behalf, the Government of Maharashtra hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Taxes and Fees Rules, 1960, namely:—
1. Short Title.—These rules may be called the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Taxes and
Fees (Amendment) Rules, 2015.
2. For rules 6 to 20 of PART II of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Taxes and Fees
Rules, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as “the principal Rules”), the following rules shall be
substituted, namely:—
“6. Definitions.—In this Part unless there be anything repugnant in the subject or
context,—
(a) “Annual Statement of Rates” means the Annual Statement of Rates, mentioned
in the Maharashtra Stamp (Determination of True Market Value of Property) Rules,
1965, issued under the provision of the Maharashtra Stamp Act ( LX of 1958) by the
Department of Registration and Stamps of the Government of Maharashtra, for the time
being in the force and as amended, from time to time;
(b) “annual value rate” means annual value rate of building or land as indicated in
the Annual Statement of Rates;
(c) “area of building” means a structure constructed with any materials whatsoever
for any purpose whether used for human habitation or not and includes,—
(i) foundation, plinth, walls, floors, roofs, chimneys, plumbing, and building
services, fixed platforms,
(ii) verandas, balconies, cornices, projections,
(iii) part of a building or anything affixed thereto,
(iv) any wall enclosing or intended to enclose any land or space, signs and
outdoor display structures,
(v) tanks constructed for storage,
(vi) basement area of towers required for windmills, towers for communication
and towers used for other purposes and open spaces required for its functioning;
(d) “ capital value ” means capital value fixed according to annual value rate and
construction rate as per the type of construction, as indicated in the Annual State of rates
and area of the building as well as depreciation rate as per age of building mentioned in the entry
2, and weights of building as per its usages mentioned in entry 1, of the Schedule A ;
(e) “ occupier ” includes a person in actual possession of a building or land whether
as owner, agent, or tenant ;
(f) “ owner ” includes the person who receives or is entitled to receive the rent of the
building or land, if such building or land islet ;
(g) “ rate of construction ” means the rate of construction as specified in the Annual
Statement of rates ;
(h) “ rate of depreciation ” means the corresponding percentage of value after deduction
of depreciation shown in column (2) and (3) in relation to the age of building shown
against column (1) of entry 2 of the Schedule A ;
(i) “ Schedule A ” means the Schedule A appended to the PART II of the rules ;
(j) “ Tribal and hilly area ” means the area of the villages included in tribal sub-plan
of the Tribal Development Department of the Government and villages included in hilly
the development program of the Planning Department of the Government and also
includes any other area of the village as declared by the Government, from time to time ;
(k) “ usage of the building and its weights ” means usage of building specified in
column (2) and its weights specified in column (3) of entry 1 of Schedule A.
7. Rate of tax on buildings and lands.—(1) Every panchayat which decides to levy a tax
on buildings and lands shall, subject to the provisions of sub-rule (4), and after following the
the procedure prescribed in rules 3 and 4, levy a tax at such rate, based on the capital value of the
building or land, not be lower than the minimum rate and higher than the maximum rate as
specified in Schedule A, as derived from the following mathematical formula,—
(a) if separate annual value rate of building is not specified in annual Statement of
Rates for any rural area, then, shall consider the annual value rate of land, rate of
construction as per the type of construction of building specified in the Annual Statement of
Rates, weightages of building as per its usage given in entry 1, and rate of depreciation
shown in entry 2, of Schedule A, the capital value of the building shall be as derived from
the mathematical formula is given below,—
capital value of building = {(area of building * annual value rate of land) + (area of building * rate of construction as per the type of construction of building * rate of depreciation)} * weightages of building as per its usages ;
(b) if separate annual value rate of building for the rural areas are specified, for
such rural areas, considering the annual value rate of building, usage of the building and its
weightages shown in entry 1 of Schedule A, rate of depreciation shown in entry 2 of
the Schedule A, the capital value of building shall be as derived from the mathematical
the formula is given below,—
capital value of building = area of building * annual value rate of building * rate of depreciation * weightages of building as per its usages ;
(c) considering the annual value rate of land, the capital value of the land shall be as derived
from the mathematical formula given below,—
the capital value of land = area of land * annual value rate of land.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the “Important Guidelines of Stamp Duty Valuation”, as specified in the Annual Statement of rates, the provisions made in these rules
shall prevail over the provision of any other law made by the State Legislature or any law which the State Legislature is competent to make or amend, in so far as such law is inconsistent
with the said provisions or rules, and such law to the extent of such inconsistency shall cease to apply or shall not apply to any such matter.
(3) Every panchayat which decides to levy a tax on towers required for windmills, towers for communication and towers used for other purposes, and open spaces required for its
functioning shall subject to the provisions of sub-rule (4) and after following the procedure prescribed in rules 3 and 4, levy the tax at such rate based on the total area (on the basis of
per square feet) of the lands and building as specified in entry 5 of Schedule A, as may be decided by the concerned Gram Panchayat: Provided that, the rate of tax levied by the concerned Gram Panchayat, shall not be lower than the minimum rate and higher than the maximum rate as specified in columns (4) and (5) of entry 5 of the Schedule A;
(4) The following lands and buildings shall be exempted from levy of tax under sub-rule (1), namely:—
(a) lands and buildings belonging to local authority and used or intended to be used solely for a public purpose and not used or intended to be used for the purposes of profit ;
(b) lands and buildings belonging to Government whether used or not or intended to be used for the purposes of profit ;
(c) lands and buildings used solely for a religious, educational, or charitable purpose; Explanations.—
I. The portion of the lands and buildings used for religious
worship purpose shall be exempted and the remaining portion of such lands and buildings
used for residential, official, commercial, etc., shall be taxable.
II. The portion used for the classroom, library, laboratory, office, playground, auditorium, i.e. educational purpose shall be exempted, and the remaining portion of the lands and building used for a hostel, staff quarters, canteen, commercial usage, etc. shall be taxable.
III. All the charitable institutions that are exempted under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (Act No. 43 of 1961), shall be exempted and other charitable institutions shall be taxable.
(d) Defence Personnel Recipients of Gallantry or Non-Gallantry awards and widows or dependents of these awardees shall be exempted from the tax on only one residential building: Provided that claimant shall produce the certificate from the District Sainik Welfare Officer, that the claimant is recipients of Gallantry or Non-Gallantry awards or the claimant is widow or dependents of such awardees ;
(e) lands and buildings belonging to a member of the personnel of the United States Technical Co-operation Mission not used or intended to be used for purposes or profit.
(f) the land belongs from the Hilly and Tribal area shall be exempted, but if the land of such area used for industrial, tourism, or commercial purposes then such land shall be taxable :
Provided that, nothing in this rule shall be deemed to exempt from tax any lands and buildings in respect of which a railway administration is liable to pay tax or a sum in
lieu thereof by virtue of a notification under section 135 of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (Act No. 9 of 1890) or section 3 of the Railways (Local Authorities Taxation) Act, 1941(Act No. 25 of 1941).
8. Tax effective from what date.—The tax shall be leviable for the year beginning on 1st April and ending on 31st March and shall not come into force except on the following dates, viz., 1st April, 1st July, 1st October or 1st January, in any year and if it comes into force on any day other than the 1st April it shall be leviable by the quarter till the 1st April next following.
9. Preparation of assessment list .—(1) Tax Assessment Committee shall prepare an
assessment list showing,—
(a) the serial number of each building or land;
(b) the type of each building that is to say, whether it is,—
(i) a hut or mud building ( mud or muck walls, raw mud walls, mud plaster, roofs of manglori tiles, asbestos or iron sheet buildings will be included in this type),
(ii) a stone or brick building built in clay, (load-bearing structure, stone or a brick wall built in clay, mud or shahabadi tiles or other types of flooring, construction without slab buildings will be included in this type),
(iii) a building built in stones, bricks, and lime or cement; (load-bearing structure, RCC slab, brick wall, inside-outside plaster, cement flooring type buildings will be included in this type),
(iv) R.C.C. type building (building with RCC frame structure, RCC slab, walls built in brick or concrete block, mortar, inside-outside plaster, tile flooring, use of Marble or Granite) ;
(c) the name of the known owner and the occupier ;
(d) the area of each building or land ;
(e) the age of each building and construction year ;
(f) the usage of each building that is to say, whether it is,—
(i) residential,
(ii) commercial,
(iii) industrial ;
(g) the amount of tax assessed on the basis of the capital value of each building or land.
(2) For the purpose of preparing such assessment list, the Tax Assessment Committee
member or any person acting under this committee or any person acting as per the directives
of this committee, as the case may be, may inspect any building or land in the village.
(3) The Tax Assessment Committee shall be formed for the tax assessment on the basis
of capital value. The Tax Assessment Committee shall consist of the following members:—
(i) Sarpanch … … … Chairman ;
(ii) Deputy Sarpanch … … … Member ;
(iii) Section or Junior Engineer, Zilla Parishad (Works) Member ;
(iv) Extension Officer (Village Panchayat) … Member ;
(v) Village Development Officer or Gram Sevak … Member-Secretary.
(Secretary of the Panchayat)
The Tax Assessment Committee, considering the Government guidelines, type of building,
rate of depreciation, usage of the building and its weightages, area of building or land, rate of tax
and capital value of the building or land shall finalize the Assessment list.
(4) There shall be a Monitoring Committee to monitor the working of the Tax Assessment
Committee and to aid and resolve the issues raised in the Tax assessment. The Monitoring
The committee shall consist of the following members, namely:—
(i) Block Development Officer… … … Chairman;
(ii) Deputy Engineer (Works), Zilla Parishad … Member;
(iii) Assistant Block Development Officer … … Member-Secretary.
[post if not available, Extension Officer
(Village Panchayat)]
10. Person primarily liable for tax how to be designed if his name cannot be ascertained.—
Where the name of the person primarily liable for the payment of the tax cannot be ascertained,
it shall be sufficient to designate him in the assessment list and in any notice which it may be
necessary to serve upon the said person as “the holder” of such premises without further
description.
11. Publication of notice of the time fixed for lodging objections.— When the assessment
the list is completed, the Member-Secretary of the Tax Assessment Committee shall cause a
notice to be given and also given it wide publicity in the village stating that the list is open
for inspection at the office of the panchayat and that objections will be considered and decided,
on a day or before thirty days of the date of notice :
Provided that, if any person has previously informed the panchayat in writing that as he
is not ordinarily residing in the village, or anything, then to be communicated him at the
the address specified on this behalf by that person. In such circumstances a copy of such notice
shall be sent to such person by post.
12. Inspection of assessment list.— Every person whose name is included in the list as
the owner or occupier of any property, every person claiming to be the owner or occupier of
any property, every person in the possession of any property, included in the list, and any
agent of such person may inspect the list and take extract therefrom without payment of any
charge thereof.
13. Consideration of objections to assessment list and authentication of list.—
(1) All objections to the assessment shall be considered and decided by the Tax Assessment
Committee, on the date specified in the notice published under rule 11 or on any later date
and the decision of the Tax Assessment Committee shall be communicated to the person
objecting to the assessment.
(2) The panchayat shall cause the necessary amendments in the assessment list to be
duly made and authenticated in accordance with the order of the Panchayat Samiti or the
Standing Committee, in the case of an appeal, or as per the decision of the Tax Assessment
Committee, as the case may be, to be made in the assessment list which and in other cases on
the authentication by the signature of Chairman or Member-Secretary of the Tax Assessment
Committee, as the case may be, not later than the 31st day of July of the year in which the
assessment list is prepared.
14. Entries in the authenticated list conclusive evidence.— The entries in the list
authenticated under the last preceding rule shall be conclusive evidence of the amount of the
tax leviable under these rules.
15. Amendment of assessment list.— (1) The Tax Assessment Committee may at any
time alter the assessment list by inserting or altering any entry in respect of any property,
such entry having been omitted from or erroneously made in the assessment list, through
accident or mistake or in respect of any building constructed, altered, added to or reconstructed in whole or in part, where such construction, alteration, addition or reconstruction has been completed after preparation of the assessment list, after giving notice
to any person likely to be adversely affected by the alternation of the list of a date not earlier
than one month after the date of service of such notice, before which any objection to the
alternation should be made.
(2) An objection made under sub-rule (1) by any person likely to be adversely affected by
any such alteration before the time fixed in such notice shall be dealt with in all respects as
if it were an objection under rule 11.
(3) Any entry or alteration made under this rule shall have the same effect as if it had
been made in the case of a building constructed, altered, added to or reconstructed on the
day on which such construction, alteration, addition or re-construction was completed or on
the date on which the new construction, alteration, addition or re-construction was first
occupied whichever first occurs, or in other cases, on the earliest day in the current financial
year in which the circumstance justifying the entry or alteration existed; and the tax or the
enhanced tax, as the case may be, shall be levied in such year in the proportion which the
the remainder of the year after such day bears to the whole year.
16. Notice to be given to Sarpanch of demolition or removal, etc. of building.—(1) Where
any building or any portion of a building that is liable to the payment of a tax is demolished
or removed, or is burnt or falls down, the person primarily liable for the payment of the said
tax shall give notice thereof in writing to the Sarpanch.
(2) Until such notice is given the person aforesaid shall continue to be liable to pay such
tax as he would have been liable to pay in respect of such building if the same, or any portion
thereof, had not been demolished, removed, burnt, or as the case may be, fallen down.
16-A. Notice of transfer of title to the property to be given to panchayat and assessment list
to be amended.—(1) Whenever the title to any property liable to the payment of the tax is
transferred or assigned, the person transferring or assigning the same or the person to whom
the same is transferred or assigned, shall respectively, give notice of such transfer or
assignment to the Sarpanch or any person authorized by the Panchayat in this behalf, within
one year from the date of the final transaction.
(2) In the event of the death of a person who is an assessee in respect of any such property,
the person to whom such title is transferred or assigned as heir or otherwise, shall give
notice to the Sarpanch or the authorized person, within one year from such death on production
of necessary evidence of death.
(3) On receipt of any notice under sub-rule (1) or (2), the Panchayat may, after verification
by local inquiry and following the procedure prescribed in rules 11 to 13 for calling and
consideration of the objections, by a resolution, passed at its meeting cause the necessary
amendments in the assessment list to be duly made and authenticated.
(4) If the panchayat fails to cause the necessary amendments to the assessment list
under sub-rule (3), within the period of two months from the date of receipt of such notice,
the assessment list shall be deemed to have been duly amended.
17. Assessment list to be revised every four years.—(1) The Tax Assessment Committee
shall completely revise the assessment once every four years. The Tax Assessment
The committee shall consider the annual value rates and rate of construction, as per the Annual
Statement of rates, for the time being, is in force, for fixing the revised capital value and
accordingly, tax assessment shall be made :
Provided that the Panchayat may, suo motu or on an application made to it by any person
On that behalf, make such alteration, every year, in the assessment list authenticated under
rule 13, and the provisions of rules 9 to 16 shall apply in relation to such alterations as they
apply in relation to an assessment list prepared under those provisions.
(2) The assessment list which shall be authenticated by the signature of the Chairman or
Member Secretary, Tax Assessment Committee, as the case may be, not later than the 31st
day of July of the year to which such alterations relate.
18. Tax from whom primarily leviable.—The tax shall be leviable primarily from the
the actual occupier of the building or land upon which it is assessed, if such occupier is the owner
of such building or land.
If the land or building is not occupied by the owner himself, the tax shall be primarily
leviable from,—
(a) the lessor, if the property is let;
(b) the superior or lessor, if the property is sub-let;
(c) the person in whom the right to let the same vests, if it is unlet;
(d) the person to whom the land or building has been transferred if the owner of
the land or buildings has left the village or cannot otherwise be found.
On failure to recover any sum due on account of such tax from the person primarily
liable, such portion of the sum may be recovered from the occupier of any part of the building
in respect of which such tax is due, in such ratio which the Tax Assessment Committee decides
to be an equitable ratio to the amount of tax assessed on the whole building in the authenticated
list.
19. Remission or refund of tax in case of vacancies.—Where any building which is
assessed to a rate payable in the year has remained vacant and unproductive of rent for
a continuous period of three months or more during a year, taxation on such building shall be
at the minimum rate specified in the Schedule annexed to this part. Panchayat shall remit
the difference of the amount of tax assessed as per prevailing rate and tax assessed at the
the minimum rate specified in the Schedule annexed to this part :
Provided that, no such remission or refund shall be granted unless notice in writing of
the fact of the building or land being vacant and unproductive of rent has been given to the
panchayat :
Provided further, that no remission or refund shall be granted for any period previous
to the date on which such notice is given to the Sarpanch. 20. Recovery of tax.—(1) The tax shall be recovered by the Sarpanch or Gram Sevak or
by any other person duly authorized by the panchayat on this behalf. A receipt for every such
payment shall be given by the person receiving it.
(2) If the taxpayer pays all tax as per assessment in the first six months of the financial year,
the taxpayer shall be entitled to get five percent. exemption on tax payment.
(3) If the taxpayer does not pay tax as per assessment in the current financial year, the
taxpayer shall be liable to pay a penalty of five percent. per annum on the outstanding amount
of tax.”.