Deccan Herald 30.10.2013
MCC to tom-tom tax defaulters
To rein in tax evaders, the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is planning to tom-tom the defaulters.
This
was disclosed by Chairman of Tax, Finance and Appeal Standing Committee
B L Bhyrappa to a delegation of citizens under the banner of
Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM), here,
on Tuesday.
Bhyrappa said, he has already instructed the revenue
wing of the local body to vet into the arrears from different
establishments like industries, marriage halls among others. In case of
any failure in executing the plan, the assistant commissioners of
respective nine zonal offices will be held responsible.
Earlier,
convener of ACICM M Lakshmana appealed to Bhyrappa to bring all possible
revenue sources, including government buildings (both State and Centre)
into the ambit of tax.
government buildings, they have been omitted from the ambit of tax. If
not all government buildings, at least profit making government office
buildings could be made to cough up tax. Lakshmana cited the example of
the railway buildings in the city.
Most importantly,
the MCC could get richer at least by Rs 50 crore if the civic body plans
to collect tax from 40,000 houses in 15 layouts developed by the Mysore
Urban Development Authority (MUDA) alone. That apart, there are 40 more
private layouts, including revenue layouts, that could fill the
MCC coffers further.
Lakshmana urged Bhyrappa to look into the
complaints of 12 prominent places in the city where tax is not being
paid according to self-assesment scheme (SAS).
Revision in tax
Bhyrappa reiterated that the new property tax will come into effect only from the next financial year.
This
follows Lakshmana’s reminder to Bhyrappa for a customary hike of 15 per
cent in property tax from the next fiscal (2014) in the gamut of law.
Lakshmana said, following the recent meeting on the move to hike
property tax, there is an apprehension among the people anticipating an
immediate hike in the tax slab. According to the gazette notification in
the year 2005, the new tax slab came into effect under SAS, with a
rider of automatically increasing the property tax up to 15 per cent
once in every three years. After the previous hike in the year 2008 and 2011, the hike is due in the next year.
