Officials tight-lipped on the percentage of hike; inputs being sought from nine MCC Zones

Mysore/Mysuru:  Get ready to pay more Property Tax for the next fiscal from April 1, 2024, as the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is in the process of calculating the exact tax amount after taking feedback from all the nine revenue zones of MCC. 

Property Tax is the biggest source of revenue for the  MCC. The hike will cover all residential and commercial buildings, vacant sites, industries, trusts, cinema and marriage halls, commercial complexes, community halls, malls, choultries, hotels, schools, charitable trusts and colleges.

To raise revenues for City Corporations, the State Government has made amendments to the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act of 1976 which allows yearly upward revision of tax on properties coming under all City Corporations of the State, barring BBMP.

The Act enables yearly enhancement of Property Tax in all 10 City Corporations — Mysuru, Davanagere, Ballari, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Mangaluru and Kalaburagi — in the State. Accordingly, the MCC is planning to increase the taxes.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, Dr. N.N. Madhu, who has been appointed as the new MCC Commissioner in place of Ashaad-Ur-Rahman Shariff (transferred ahead of LS polls), said that the revised Property Tax will come into effect from Apr. 1.

“We are in the process of collecting revenue reports from all the nine zones of the MCC from the Zonal Commissioner, Assistant Commissioners and Revenue Inspectors. The Revenue Officers will calculate the tax based on guidance value, road width, extent of properties and areas,” she said.

“There will be a slight increase and it is not possible to reveal the extent of the hike as of now. A comprehensive decision will be taken after the zonal revenue reports arrive and in discussion with officers, residents and other representatives,” she said.

After the revised Property Taxes are announced, the residents will get a five percent rebate if they pay their taxes for 2024-2025 by April 30, 2024, she added.

In the current scenario, with the MCC Council yet to be constituted, the day-to-day operations of the MCC are being overseen by the Regional Commissioner. Collaborating closely with the MCC Commissioner, decisions regarding the revision of Property Tax are being made solely by Administrative Officers, without the involvement of any elected representatives.

With the Lok Sabha elections, the formation of the MCC Council is likely to be delayed further. Typically, proposals for revising Property Tax, gathered from the nine zones and consolidated by senior officers, would be presented to the Council for approval. However, due to the absence of a functioning Council, this traditional process cannot be followed this time.