Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) will now impose ‘Commercial-B tax’ on hotels, lodges, cinema halls, shopping malls and marriage halls instead of ‘Super Commercial Tax’, said Dr. Nagaraj, Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), MCC.

Participating in a meeting with the owners of those commercial establishments at a choultry in Vishveshwaranagar here on Monday, he said that nowhere in the State, ‘Super Commercial Tax’ system existed. Understanding this, it was removed to bring all those commercial establishments under ‘Commercial-B tax’ net. Owners of these establishments had appealed to the MCC to do away this tax system and their demand had been fulfilled. This will save a tax of around Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 80,000 per owner annually, he added.

Dr. Nagaraj said that the Corporation was imposing an annual tax of 2.2816 percent after considering cost of land, building and others. Now, under ‘Commercial-B tax’ system, 1.70 percent tax will be levied annually. With this, 0.5816 percent tax has been cut. The change in the tax slab was consequent to a detailed debate in both Houses of the State Legislature. At the same time, the Government has instructed all Urban Local Bodies that the tax must not be less than previous year. In view of this, the Corporation has not imposed any new tax and has reduced it as much as possible.

He ruled out reimbursement of money remitted by those commercial establishments as per ‘Super Commercial Tax’ rate since 2008 and said that efforts will be made to reduce tax further.

M.R. Rajaram, President, Mysore Theatre Owners Association, the recently abolished ‘Super Commercial Tax’ never existed in any city including Bengaluru. “Is Mysuru bigger than Bengaluru. Will Mysuru do more business than Bengaluru. In spite of this, the MCC had imposed this kind of ‘unscientific’ tax system on us in 2008 and took 13 long years to abolish it. This showed that the MCC did not want traders to                                    do business.”

Vinay Venkatesh, Secretary, Mysuru Kalyan Mantap Owners Association, urged the Corporation officials to take up for discussion regarding reimbursement of this ‘unscientific’ tax in the General Body Meeting. The business has been hit hard in the last one year due to                                               Corona pandemic.

N.M. Shashikumar, Additional Commissioner, MCC, T.S. Satyamurthy, Assistant Commissioner (Zone-3) and B.S. Prashanth, President, Mysuru Travels Association (MTA),   were present.

All Urban Local Bodies must have uniform tax rate. Traders must not be compelled to pay pending tax at the time of issuing Trade Licence. It is not proper on the part of MCC to say pay more tax at a time when business is developing slowly after one year slump due to COVID-19 pandemic. —C. Narayanagowda, President, Mysuru Hotel Owners Association

I will discuss with officers on not collecting penalty while paying taxes in two instalments. Efforts will be made to help traders as much as possible. —Shobha Mohan, Chairperson, Standing Committee on  Finance and Taxation, MCC