KMC looks to hike property tax

The exercise for turning Kakinada in to a Smart City has commenced and plans are being prepared by the KMC. The authorities are eliciting public opinion for hiking the ta-xes and user charges for the development of city.

However, many of the people and colony associations have given their consent for the hike, if the KMC provides all basic amenities included in Smart City concept.

The KMC has divided Kakinada into five zones for ADB under Retrofitt-ing category. The area comprising of 27 to 43 divisions was selected for ABD based on opinion poll on the Government of India website mygov.inplatform based on sustainability, visibility and implementation.

“However, under the Smart City programme, nearly an amount of Rs 1, 500 crore is going to be invested for ugrading the existing infrastructure facilities besides providing best services for the people. The funds will be released by the Govern-ment of India and state government, contributions and other agencies for development of capital works. Maintenance cost will be increased substantially with the improved infrastructure facilities,” said a KMC official.

The ULM may not be in a position to maintain these assets. Tax increment financing is necessary. The Government envisaged collecting user fee, beneficiary charges and impact fee and others as per condition 11.3 of Smart City guidelines.

He said that due to improvement of infrastructure facilities in the ABD area the asset value as well as operation and maintenance cost can be increased.