The Big Fleece!

MCC now wants businesses to pay for keeping Generators and Air Conditioners, also 20% extra for Trade Licence

Mysore/Mysuru: The cash-strapped Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has decided to increase the Trade Licence fee by 20 percent for three years with effect from Apr. 1, 2021.

In an order issued on Feb. 5 this year, the MCC has stated that the revised Trade Licence fee that was implemented on 1.4.2018 after taking the consent from the Council ends on Mar. 31, 2021 and as such, new fee structure will come into effect from Apr. 1, 2021 with a 20 percent hike. Obtaining a Trade Licence is mandatory under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976. The Act has empowered the MCC to revise Trade Licence fee once every three years. 

The MCC has identified over 250 types of businesses and the order stated that traders have to pay an additional Rs. 1,728 apart from the Trade Licence fee if they have air conditioners or generators in their premises. Also, those traders who use electricity for their business have to pay an additional Rs. 18 per HP/kilowatt every time apart from the Trade Licence fee. Also, separate fee has been fixed for traders who use up to 10 HP/kilowatt, up to 50 HP/kilowatt and those who use more than 51 HP/kilowatt. Up to 10 HP/kilowatt, the fee is Rs. 864 and for additional use, traders have to pay Rs. 18 per HP/kilowatt. Up to 50 HP/kilowatt, the fee is Rs. 1,728 and for additional use, traders have to pay Rs. 18 per HP/kilowatt. If more than 51 HP/kilowatt is used, traders have to shell out Rs. 1,728 as fee and for additional use, they have to pay Rs. 18 per HP/kilowatt. 

But this move to extract fee for generators and air conditioners has irked traders who have termed it irrational. 

Many traders have complained to Star of Mysore that it is a summer shock delivered by the MCC.

“Here is a new type of tax if you own a generator. You pay Rs. 1,728 per year and also Rs.18 per kilowatt to the MCC who does not give us electricity,” said a businessman who owns an outlet in the heart of the city. “Who wants to use a generator if uninterrupted power is supplied to us? Not only this. If you use an air conditioner (AC), you end up paying Rs. 2,000 per year to the MCC and this is nothing but fleecing,” the trader complained.

Other traders who have gone to pay the fee by Mar. 31 complained that they have been asked to pay generator and AC fee. 

But MCC Health Officer Dr. D.G. Nagaraj told SOM this morning that the Trade Licence fee is not new. “Traders, right from an owner of a small shop on the street to a shop owner in a mall, have to obtain a Trade Licence and we revise the fee every three years as per the decision of the Council,” he said.

Regarding the generator and AC fee, he said that this would affect only bigger businesses and small traders would not be burdened. “Only huge establishments, star hotels and businesses that have big premises will have to pay generator and air conditioner fee,” he said. 

The Civic Body has announced that applications received for renewal of Trade Licences till March end will be processed without penalty. From Apr. 1 to June 30, the penalty would be 10 percent of the total Trade Licence fee and from July 1 till Sept. 30, it will be 15 percent and from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 20 percent penalty. 

If traders do not pay even by then, from Jan. 1, 2022 till Feb. 28, 2022, 30 percent of the total Trade Licence fee would be levied as penalty. If traders fail to pay the fee even after one year, 50 percent of the total Trade Licence fee will be levied as penalty, the MCC notification signed by the MCC Commissioner stated. 

Post Apr. 1, defaulting traders will not only be liable to pay a Trade Licence fee, which will be 20 percent more than the existing fee but will also have to face the wrath of the Civic Body as collection drives will be launched.