Kerala High Court Upholds Luxury Tax U/S 5A Of Kerala Building Tax Act
The Kerala Excessive Court docket said that occupancy certificates not remaining for plinth space dedication below Part 6 of the Kerala Constructing Tax Act.
Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. was addressing the problem the place problem raised by the assessee was towards the evaluation of constructing tax and luxurious tax, by primarily inserting reliance upon Occupancy Certificates.
Part 5A Of Kerala Constructing Tax Act imposes luxurious tax on residential buildings that exceed a sure plinth space threshold.
Part 6 of the Kerala Constructing Tax Act offers with dedication of plinth space for the aim of constructing tax.
In this case, the assessee/petitioner is the proprietor of a residential constructing and is aggrieved by the constructing tax evaluation in respect of the stated constructing.
In accordance to the assessee, the entire plinth space of the constructing is 270.17 Sq. Meters, which is the plinth space talked about within the Occupancy Certificates (Ext.P1) issued by the Changanasserry Municipality. In occupancy certificates, the plinth space of 270.17 Sq. meters was accredited by the City Planning Officer as nicely.
Nevertheless, later, proceedings had been issued by the 4th respondent/The Tahsildar and Assessing Officer imposing luxurious tax below Part 5A of the Kerala Constructing Tax Act and likewise making a requirement of Rs.2,460/- which is the remaining quantity payable based mostly on the revision of 1 time constructing tax payable by the petitioner.
The evaluation of the luxurious tax was made, in view of the truth that within the measurement, the plinth space of the constructing was discovered to be greater than 278.7 Sq. meters, subsequently it was discovered that the petitioner is liable to pay luxurious tax.
The bench after trying into Part 6 of the Kerala Constructing Tax Act noticed that although the stated provision contemplates that plinth space of a constructing for the aim of this Act, shall be the plinth space of the constructing as specified within the plan accredited by the native authority, the stated provision additionally permits the assessing authority to confirm the identical.
“This would result in a conclusion that, the statutory stipulation contained in Part 6 is just not merely to just accept the plinth space talked about within the accredited plan as such, however the identical is topic to verification of the assessing authority. In different phrases, it shall be open to the assessing authority to confirm whether or not the plinth space talked about within the accredited plan is appropriate or not”, added the bench.
The bench noticed that other than the Occupancy Certificates, no different paperwork are produced by the assessee to substantiate that the measurement of the plinth space referred to above, was faulty.
The bench opined that merely due to the rationale that, Occupancy Certificates accommodates that the plinth space is 270.62 Sq. Meters, that by itself wouldn’t result in a conclusion that, the constructing tax needs to be assessed based mostly on the identical.
In view of the above, the bench discovered that no additional scrutiny is required and dismissed the petition.
Case Title: Sherly Thomas Nalpathamkalam v. State of Kerala
Case Quantity: WP(C) NO. 3826 OF 2023
Counsel for Petitioner/ Assessee: Thomas Abraham, S. Abhilash Vishnu and Ok.R. Monisha
