MCC Commissioner assures businessmen

Mysuru: Under fire for levying what the traders have called unreasonable Property Tax for businesses, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) has finally relented, providing a major relief to commercial property owners.

MCC Commissioner G. Lakshmikantha Reddy has assured that the classification of commercial properties for tax collection will be discontinued and Property Tax would henceforth be levied under the single category of ‘Commercial’ without categorising them as ‘Commercial A’ or ‘Commercial B.’

Meeting a delegation of traders and businessmen under the banner of Federation of Organisations and Associations of Mysuru at Vani Vilas Water Works Office here yesterday, the MCC Commissioner said that instead of categorising the commercial properties as ‘A’ and ‘B’ and levying taxes, tax for such properties would be levied entirely as ‘Commercial’ properties without any distinction in the extent of tax levied.

The meeting was called following widespread discontentment among the traders and businessmen over the commercial and super-commercial categorisation. They had objected to the MCC’s move to launch a ‘banner campaign’ to recover Property Tax dues.

“The matter will be looked into and I will assure that there won’t be any cut in basic amenities to the defaulters,” the Commissioner said. He assured that after the ‘Commercial A’ and ‘B’ classifications are removed, Property Taxes would automatically come down.

Pending dues

“Pay all your pending taxes and there will not be any concession regarding payment of dues. If there are errors in the calculation, all of them would be rectified in the next Council meeting,” the Commissioner Lakshmikantha Reddy said.

On the outstanding taxes, the Federation complained to the Commissioner that the MCC staff threatened the traders with dire consequences if taxes were not paid. “We are ready to pay taxes but banners are pasted in front of properties that have just one year of pending taxes and they are being projected as having a backlog of 10 years,” they alleged. The Commissioner assured the Federation that the staff would be directed to treat businessmen in a fair way.

Less taxes in the offing

In a separate press statement, the Federation said that the MCC Commissioner assured de-classifying of commercial taxes into one category which is expected to ease the tax burden on Choultries, cinema theatres, commercial complexes, lodges and others from the next taxation year. The Commissioner has assured of placing the proposal before the next Council meeting, the release said.

The Commissioner also assured that as per the demand from traders, the issue of imposing additional taxes while issuing trade licences and levying more taxes on ACs and Generators would also be looked into by the Council. “We are ready to issue trade licences to those who are running the trades with valid NoCs,” he added.

“The Council will decide on the tax for properties that lack Completion Report (CR) while issuing trade licences. For old buildings, the tax is collected based on the current construction cost. The traders want the tax to be devalued when the building gets older. This issue too will be brought to the notice of the Council,” Lakshmikantha Reddy said.

‘B’ Khatas to properties

A decision will be taken in the next Council meeting to introduce the procedure of issuing ‘B’ Khatas to properties, thereby generating revenue to the MCC. On the issue of additional cess collected for vacant sites, the Commissioner told the Federation that the MCC has no powers to act on certain matters which could only be brought to the notice of the State Government. “However, we will make honest efforts to sort out issues that can be solved locally,” he added.

Federation President B.S. Prashanth, Vice-President C. Narayana Gowda, office-bearers Vinay Venkatesh, K.R. Sathyanarayana, Manoj Shenoy, S.K. Dinesh, A. Sudheendra, Veerabhadrappa, MCC Deputy Commissioner N.M. Shashikumar, Trade Licencing Officer Roopa and others were present at the meeting.