BENGALURU: The administrative reforms committee headed by former chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar has recommended a 1 per cent sports cess on property taxes across all urban local bodies in the state, apart from cess for unorganised workers from the sectors which they work in.
Having submitted its reforms report number 4 and 5, the three member committee has said: “...it is suggested that the department of youth empowerment and sports prepare proposals for amending the BBMP Act, the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, the Karnataka Municipalities Act and the Karnataka GS and PR Act (e.g. Sec 143 (1) of BBMP Act 2020, Sec.200 of KPR Act) to insert a provision to levy sports cess as a percentage, say 1%, of the property tax.”
The committee justified the recommendations on the “insufficient” funds in the DYES department which is leading to a mushrooming of private playfields and sports facilities which are “charging exorbitant user fees”.
Speaking to TOI, Bhaskar said: “If you look at the maintenance of our government libraries, the cess collected by the ULBs are what ensures their upkeep and running. The department of sports has very little allocations each year in the budget due to pressing demands from other sectors. As a result we are asking for the levying of a 1 per cent cess on property taxes.”
According to the committee report, the levy of 1 per cent cess on property tax requires amendment to the BBMP Act, the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, the Karnataka Municipalities Act and the Karnataka GS and PR Act (e.g. Sec 143 (1) of BBMP Act 2020, Sec.200 of KPR Act).
In its report, the committee has said: “The sports cess to be levied on property tax would be used by the ULBs/GPs themselves for the development and maintenance of stadia and other sports infrastructure in their jurisdiction.”
It has also recommended that a new district sports authority be formed under the DYES which could give technical support and guidance to ULBs/GPs in utilising these funds.
The report also speaks of a new Bengaluru City Sports Authority as well for the purpose.
Additional Cess proposed for unorganised sector welfare
Apart from the Sports Cess proposed by the reforms committee, another additional cess has been also mooted for ensuring benefits to the unorganised sector in the ULBs.
In its report, the committee has said that there is a relatively small allocation for the unorganised workers benefits in contrast to that of the construction workers welfare.
“ Towards this end, suitable legislation may be proposed by the Labour department for collecting cesses for the welfare of unorganised workers,” said the report.
The committee has said that cesses that are proposed need to be professionally linked to the beneficiaries, with a Transport cess on purchase of petrol/diesel and on registration of vehicles may be collected in a Transport Workers fund to benefit drivers, cleaners, conductors, mechanics etc and a cess on urban property tax on the lines of beggary cess may be collected to benefit domestic workers, dhobis, barbers, tailors, cycle repairers etc.
Further, a cess on APMCs market fee would benefit hamalis and a cess on taxi aggregator apps, e-commerce delivery apps, food delivery apps would benefit gig workers of these agencies.
“It has said the Labour Commissioner could work out the modalities of these different cesses and send suitable proposals to the Government for consideration,” reads the report.
Other recommondations
In other recommendations, the report also speaks of setting up ward level libraries in Bengaluru and other City corporations in the initial stage and then expanding it to other ULBs considering a large amount of the library cess is supposedly “unused”.
It has also asked the BBMP to keep the urban primary health centres (UPHC) to remain open during night as well, as a lot of BPL families and the poor are forced to go to private hospitals and incur heavy financial burden due to the PHCs closing by evening 6 pm.
