Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad municipal corporation has extended its offer to provide a 20% rebate on payment of the property tax up to September 30, officials said on Thursday.
However, the minutes of the June 30 board meeting that rejected the hiked property tax from this financial year onwards as per the new structure, are yet to be released.
Corporation officials said that the rebate of 20% upon payment of early tax was applicable till July 31. “We have decided to extend the rebate by 20% till September 30. In October and November, the rebate will be 10% while it will be 5% if tax is paid in the months of December and January (2026),” said the corporation’s chief tax assessment officer Sanjeev Sinha.
Notably, the corporation had been sending property tax bills to residents at hiked rates for this financial year (2025-2026), and this has been opposed by residents and also councillors.
Many residents have not paid the hiked tax so far.
Residents said that they are in no mood to pay up the tax which is based on revised structure and much higher than what was charged last year.
“The residents are receiving hiked bills, and not in the mood to pay the higher tax. The extension of rebate indicates that residents are not turning up to pay up and this is why the rebate extension has been extended. However, the corporation has not clarified whether the extension of rebate would be applicable on higher tax structure or the old tax structure that prevailed till last financial year. All this indicates that officials of the corporation are bent on levying higher tax,” said Mohan Sangwan, a resident of Indirapuram.
Other residents said that they are in a state of confusion as the corporation has not made public the minutes of the June 30 board meeting during which the hiked tax was rejected.
Upon intervention of councillors, city Mayor Sunita Dayal on June 30 had held a board meeting in which councillors rejected the proposed hike with a resounding majority. This meeting had only one agenda for discussion — the hiked tax.
However, official minutes of the meeting are yet to be released even after the corporation officials promised the protesting councillors in writing that these would be sent to the mayor by 10am on July 25. The letter, given to the councillors, was signed by Sinha and additional municipal commissioner Jung Bahadur Yadav, who is also the House secretary.
The officials had earlier said that they were busy with the Kanwar Yatra. “I do not know the status of the minutes,” Sinha said when asked.
Mayor Sunita Dayal said that the officials have not sent the minutes to her as yet.
“I have asked them to prepare the minutes. As regards the hiked tax, it is our intent that the actual tax should be charged. A survey was to be taken up for assessing the additional constructions, but this survey has not started. I have asked officials to rope in temporary staff and get the survey underway,” the mayor added.
Officials aware of the development, meanwhile, said the minutes of the June 30 board meeting are not getting released as three former councillors, citing exorbitant hike in tax and other issues, have already moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) at the Allahabad high court.
A last hearing on the PIL was held on August 5.
“We will again meet officials of the corporation for releasing the minutes. In absence of it, there is a lot of confusion among residents. We have restrained RWAs and other associations of traders from holding any protest. The minutes of the June 30 board meeting is an independent decision of the corporation board, and should be released and made public at the earliest,” said Neeraj Goel, councillor of ward 88 of Turab Nagar/Gandhi Nagar.
The councillors in July had staged protests at the corporation headquarters, demanding immediate release of the minutes. The protest ended after the officials gave them a letter in writing.