Bengaluru: Clamour grows against property tax hike plan, major parties say no

Bengaluru: BBMP's plan to hike property tax is unlikely to get the council approval.

On one hand BJP corporators are opposing this move and on the other corporators from other parties too are reluctant to support it, as it may affect their prospects at the BBMP elections next year.

BBMP hiked the property tax in 2016 at the rate of 20 percent for domestic households and 25 percent for commercial buildings. As per Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976 BBMP can hike property tax with a minimum of 15 percent to a maximum of 30 percentage.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad had proposed to hike the property tax of domestic households by 25 percent and commercial by 30 percent in November itself. But the resolution could not be passed due to election to standing committees in November, followed by BBMP budget and then the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha elections.

While BJP corporators have made it clear that they oppose the resolution, many corporators from the Congress party too are not in favour of the proposed hike.

A Congress corporator who didn't wish to be named said that people are already burdened and this hike will hurt the party during BBMP elections.

"Looking from the point of view of BBMP we need money to run the show. We have powers to hike property tax. But this hike may not be passed in the BBMP council as this move will directly affect our prospects of getting reelected," the corporator said.

BJP city unit spokesman N.R. Ramesh said that there are nearly seven lakh properties which are not into the tax net. "Nearly 90 percent of big tech parks, IT hubs, star hotels, malls, marriage and party halls, paying guest accommodations have not correctly declared their exact built up area. When we first introduced the total station survey, we found that UB city which was paying nearly Rs 1 crore, had to pay more than Rs 6 crore as they had not declared all of their built up area. Even residential buildings reduce their built up areas to evade paying more tax," Ramesh said.

He added that if the BBMP brings all these buildings under the tax net and use the total station survey to help find defaulters and make them pay taxes properly, then the civic body can easily mop up more than Rs 5,000 crore from property tax alone.

We will not allow the hike proposal to the passed in the council, he added.