Uniform property tax system for NDMC residents likely to be rolled out in coming weeks

Residents of the New Delhi Municipal Council area will soon under a uniform property tax regime as the civic body has finalised and approved the required bye-laws and completed technical preparations to implement a new assessment system, officials said on Thursday.

According to officials, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has updated its online property tax platform and carried out testing in coordination with the National Informatics Centre, paving the way for the rollout of amendments that replace the decades-old rateable value-based assessment method.

Officials said a Municipal Valuation Committee will be constituted shortly, after which the amended framework is expected to be brought into force in the coming weeks.

The change follows amendments to the NDMC Act, 1994, by The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, under which property tax assessment in the NDMC area will be based entirely on the Unit Area Method (UAM), bringing all properties under a single taxation system.

According to the new amendment, The Jan Vishwas Bill, 2026, calls for forming a Municipal Valuation Committee to recommend the base value for vacant lands and buildings, and the manner of determining and revising property tax.

The committee will consist of two to six members; one of them shall be the NDMC chairperson.

According to officials, until now, a small section of properties in the NDMC area continued to be assessed under the older rateable value method, while the vast majority were already covered under the UAM, leading to two parallel mechanisms for determining property tax.

“Five per cent of the properties were still taxed by the rateable value method, while the rest were taxed under the UAM. There was a lot of litigation due to this issue. This disparity will be resolved after the new system comes into effect,” an official said.

Under the new framework, tax liability will no longer depend on the estimated rental value of a property. Instead, it will be calculated using five objective factors: the built-up area, location of the property, category of the colony, its usage, and whether residential or commercial.

Officials said the move is aimed at making property tax assessment more transparent and predictable for residents by relying on fixed parameters rather than individual valuation estimates.

The applicable rates and categories will be notified by the municipal authority and integrated into its property tax systems, allowing taxpayers to determine their liability through a standardised calculation process, officials added.

According to officials, the transition is expected to reduce disputes arising from assessments and provide greater clarity to property owners in the NDMC area.