Metro fallout: Betterment tax on cards

MUMBAI: People who own houses and run commercial establishments in areas which have the Metro rail and monorail projects might end up paying 10% of the saleable value of their properties to the government as betterment tax which will be used for improving infrastructure in the Mumbai metropolitan region. The government is discussing the issue to raise funds that will help the MMRDA buttress its future finances.
MMRDA officials said that the idea of the betterment tax is that if the government is spending money to build infrastructure which raises the land values in areas, then it should try and get its share of the new property values realized and put it to good use for building more infrastructure for the region. They said that in certain areas where new infrastructure was being built, it has raised the land values by a considerable amount sometimes by 60-70%. The initial plan for the betterment tax was to have it raised from a circle of influence around the metro and monorail stations. This circle of influence would have a 500 metre radius around the station areas. -Ashley D’Mello