• Cash counters at 9 MCC Zonal Offices kept open from May
• People can pay taxes by following social distancing norms
• Cash-strapped Karnataka Government to introduce Akrama-Sakrama Scheme in Mysuru too

Mysore/Mysuru: Providing relief to the tax-payers of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), Urban Development Minister B.A. Basavaraj (Byrathi Basavaraj) yesterday said that the State Government has extended the deadline to pay Property Tax by three months within the MCC limits.

The Minister made this announcement at a meeting held at the Old Council Hall of the MCC, where Mysuru’s COVID preparation, tasks, control measures and other issues were discussed and reviewed. The Minister also took stock of the development works coming under Mysuru city limits including drinking water.

The meeting was attended by Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar, MP Pratap Simha, MLAs S.A. Ramdas, L. Nagendra and G.T. Devegowda, Mayor Tasneem, Deputy Mayor Sridhar and officers including Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar and MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde.

As the media was not allowed inside the meeting, Byrathi Basavaraj later told reporters that all activities including tax payment had come to a grinding halt due to the lockdown and people are facing hardship due to lack of income. “Keeping this in mind, the Government has decided to give three-month (till July 31) time to pay property taxes, water bills and trade licence fees,” he said but did not mention anything about the rebate extended to early tax-payers.

MCC has not been able to collect taxes through its Zonal Offices as they have remained closed and even the online collection system was not implemented as promised earlier by the MCC as there was no approval from the Government. 

There are 1,83,000 tax-payers in all 65 wards within MCC limits at present including 26,000 revenue properties and this number will increase by formation of new layouts across the city. Till March 20 this year, the MCC had collected Rs. 120 crore as taxes and the percentage stands at 85 percent.

Recently, MCC Commissioner Gurudatta Hegde had written to the Urban Development Ministry seeking a nod to provide time for the public to pay the pending taxes in full till the end of July with five percent rebate. But the Government has not replied to the letter so far. Now, the time has been extended till July end to pay taxes but there is no clarity on rebate offer.

MCC officers informed ‘Star of Mysore’ that the cash counters at all the nine Zonal Offices have been kept open from May 5 where people can still pay taxes after following social distancing norms.

Akrama-Sakrama Scheme

Minister Byrathi Basavaraj told the meeting that the State Government has planned to introduce Akrama-Sakrama Scheme in Mysuru too to regularise unauthorised properties as in Bengaluru. 

Akrama-Sakrama is a scheme to regularise illegal buildings to generate additional revenue in the light of the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Urban Development Department has prepared new guidelines for regularisation of illegal buildings. Laws on regularisation of unauthorised properties have been reframed after studying the laws framed in other States, the Minister said.

For unauthorised houses, double the tax would have to be paid for regularisation. The law permits imposition of 6 percent penalty on buildings that have violations of up to 50 percent. Above that, the Government has the power to levy a fine of up to 25 percent of the market price for regularisation of the construction.