Property owners in Mysuru will now have to bear a hike of 15 per cent in property tax.
A resolution this effect was adopted in the recent Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Council meeting. “The new tax regime will come into effect from April 1, 2021”, MCC Commissioner Shilpa Nag told The Hindu.
The revised property tax will be fixed on the basis of the new guidance value. “Hitherto, we were taking 50 per cent of the 2007-08 guidance value as the base for calculating property tax. But, the new Government Order states that we have to take the 2018-19 guidance value. However, in order to minimise the impact of the new tax regime, we will be taking only 25 per cent of the guidance value as the base value for tax calculation”, Ms. Nag explained.
The last revision of property tax in MCC was during 2017. Though the government has mandated a property tax revision once every three years, the revision due in 2020 could not be carried out due to COVID-19.
The revision of property tax, which comes in the midst of a rise in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, is being brought into effect not only in Mysuru, but all the City Corporations and Urban Local Bodies except Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) in Karnataka, while issuing a direction on February 19, 2021 that the revision in property tax has to be carried out compulsorily, had cautioned that the City Corporations and Urban Local Bodies that failed to revise property tax will be denied the 15th Finance Commission funds as well as the Swacch Bharat Mission grants.
Ms. Nag said the hike will not go beyond 15 per cent. Though guidance value in some instances had almost quadrupled from 2007-08 to 2018-19, the MCC has kept 15 per cent as the ceiling. “We have ensured that the hike will not be beyond that for any category”, she said.
Target
The target of property tax collection, which was ₹150 crore last year (2020-21), will go upto ₹180.34 crore during the coming year (2021-22), Ms. Nag said. However, the property tax collection was only ₹117.50 crore during 2020-21 till March 26. The shortfall has been attributed to COVID-19, which had affected businesses and livelihood.
