Citizens debate SAS Property Tax

Are Jayanagar and the city's commercial business district the same? The BBMP thinks so, in so far as the assessment of property tax is concerned. At an interaction meet with the BBMP organised by Abhiruthi, at the initiative of BN Vijaykumar, MLA, Jayanagar at SSJ College auditorium,  Bhaskar Murthy, President Federation of Jayanagar Resident Welfare Association, questioned how the same zonal parameters can be applied to Jayanagar and the city's central business districts. Sri Bhaskar Murthy expressed the view that value of residential properties in Bangalore had gone up mainly to meet the needs of newcomers to Bangalore. In this scenario, it was ridiculous to tax longtime residents of Bangalore for meeting the needs of those who were relocating to the city now.
Setting the agenda for the meeting, B.N. Vijayakumar mentioned how the recent gazette notification of BBMP had become a matter for very serious debate. The BBMP in its notification had sought from the general public any objection to the notification. The objection if any had to be addressed to BBMP within 21 days from the date of notification, he said, and called for free and frank opinions from the people. The Jayanagar MLA sat among the citizens to strengthen the impression that this was about the opinion of citizens of Bangalore, irrespective of their status.
BBMP officer Vasanth Rao gave a power point presentation of the new notification and the division of the city into various zones for the purpose of property tax. Stating that the hike in property tax would be limited to 20%, he added that there were provisions for rebate for self-occupied properties and for certain sections of the society. The notification also covered illegal buildings and vacant land tax.
Mukund, President, Citizens Action Forum revealed the proposed hike in tax was more than the 10-15% suggested by the Minister concerned at an earlier meeting. Further, he expressed the view that the increase in property tax should be applicable to new owners and not for existing citizens. New owners were paying a higher price for acquiring the property today and they are the persons who primarily benefit from the development, he pointed out. Also, the proposed 20% increase would hit the senior citizens hard. The BBMP should not depend solely on revenues from the property tax for its expenses, he remarked and concluded by saying that the BBMP should take care not to harass the honest tax payer and deliver punitive punishment on the defaulters.

The 5th Block Residents' Welfare Association observed that the classification of Zones and Unit area values were not scientifically framed. The proposed zonal system should be reviewed once in 5 years instead of once in three years, and the depreciation allowance should be changed to 70% instead of the proposed 50%. Also, filing of annual returns by the property owner should be done away with, and in case it is found very necessary, the returns may be asked to be submitted once in 5 years, and in the event of any change in usage of property, immediately.
The JP Nagar I Phase residents' welfare association said the BBMP should maintain a comprehensive property register. Presently, there are lot of anomalies in the property register maintained and that there is no correlation between the voters list and property register. The members pointed out one of the draconian feature of this notification viz. the up-gradation of localities to higher tax zones without fixing any benchmarks. The notification further stated that unit rates for different classifications had been hiked arbitrarily. The association demanded that BBMP should prominently display list of defaulters in public places like libraries, ward offices etc.
Sri Chandrasekhar, Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), BBMP and Ramesh from IIM, Bangalore chaired the meet.