Sir,

The property tax revision this year carried out by MCC has been a brutal blow for citizens, adding to Covid-induced financial woes. Although MCC issued a press note mentioning that the increase was in the range of 15%, the increase ranges as high as 50% – 60%, depending on the location of the property, as attested by a letter by another concerned citizen in this column.

In their urge to mop up resources, MCC has embarked on a triple whammy in the form of: (a) Increased market value for property assessment; (b) Taxing non built-up area and (c) Extra cess over and beyond 24% that was already being collected.

While one can understand that MCC would want to bridge the existing gap in market value considered for computing tax and use the latest value for assessments, normally such adjustments are done over a few years to ensure that the tax doesn’t go through the roof in one single year. Instead, apart from this, MCC has also introduced tax on vacant land (non-built up area) and two more cess items, all in the same year. This has resulted in property tax increasing by more than 50% for some cases, when people are struggling to maintain existing incomes due to the pandemic.

I would suggest that the MCC identify such cases and cap the increase to a reasonable limit of 20% or 25%. It’s unconscionable to increase the burden beyond this, given all the challenges people are going through.

– S. Nagarajan, Kuvempunagar, 16.4.2021

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