The council of the Mangalore City Corporation in its meeting on Wednesday nullified a decision on hiking property tax from the current financial year.
Mayor Mahabala Marla ruled in the meeting that the council was abolishing the hike implemented from this April. Hence there will be no 15 per cent hike in the property tax under the self assessment scheme.
However, whether this stands the test of the law will have to be seen. An official note on the subject tabled in the meeting said a decision withdrawing an earlier notification that made payment of enhanced property tax mandatory would be “violative of the laws”. The law referred to here is the Section 109 (A) of The Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976. The resolution will be forwarded to the government for its approval.
The latest decision of the council adds to the ambiguity persisting over the hike about which confusing signals have emerged from authorities and political representatives for more than four months. The official note in fact said that 91,516 property owners have already paid the tax and any decision withdrawing the earlier notification would confuse them and hit revenue collection.
The ruling Congress party councillor Radhakrishna from Derebail South-West ward moved a subject to this effect in the meeting. It was taken up for discussion at the end of the meeting, which lasted five hours.
The Mayor officially made it clear for the first time in the council that he would abide by the decision of the Congress which was against hike in property tax. When presspersons asked the Mayor about the anomaly as many have paid the revised tax he said that it would be adjusted while collecting the tax for 2015-16.
Speaking to presspersons, the Leader of the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the council Premananda Shetty said the Opposition was demanding that the Mayor should issue a media statement to this effect on Thursday to remove ambiguity in the mind of people.
Earlier in the council meeting the BJP persistently demanded the Mayor to make the stand clear as the decision announced by the whip M. Shashidhar Hegde on the subject was vague. Mr. Hegde had said the corporation would write a letter to the government on the subject.
When Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada A.B. Ibrahim was the administrator of the corporation, the civic body had resolved (resolution number 505/2013-14) to hike property tax for the next three years from 2014-15. The corporation issued a public notification to this effect on March 4, 2014.
As per Section 109 (A) of The Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 the rates of property tax under the self-assessment scheme (SAS) should be revised upwards once every three years.
