Karnataka - Shimoga   

Shimoga council not to collect property tax under new scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

SHIMOGA, SEPT. 13. The Shimoga City Municipal Council, at its meeting here on Monday, decided not to collect property tax under the Self Assessment Scheme for Property Tax (SASPT) until the Government promulgated an ordinance on the changes proposed to be incorporated in it.

The meeting took strong exception to the notification by the Municipal Commissioner, S.P. Mudhol, that the property would be seized if the tax was not paid under the SASPT.

The Bharatiya Janata Party Councillor, N.J. Rajasekhar, who raised the issue, recalled that the Municipal Administration Minister, S.R. More, had assured a meeting of the MLAs and representatives of the Tax Payers' Associations convened by him in Bangalore that the SASPT would be amended suitably so that it would not be a burden to taxpayers.

Mr. Rajasekhar said that the Government had failed to promulgate the ordinance on the amendments to be made to the SASPT in the light of the assurance given by the Minister who had reportedly said that the taxpayers would be allowed to pay taxes according to the SASPT or two times higher than the old rates. But so far the Government had not acted on the assurance given by the Government.

Coercion opposed

The councillors who joined the issue also did not approve of the coercive methods being contemplated to collect the property tax. They suggested that taxpayers be allowed to pay tax under the old rates after giving an undertaking that they would pay the difference in the revised tax, if any.

The City Municipal Council president, B.A. Ramesh Hegde, assured that coercive methods would not be resorted to for collection of property tax under the SASPT.

Road repairs

Shamsundar and Ganesh Prasad, members, said that the roads in the city which had deteriorated should be repaired on a priority basis. They made a particular reference to the 100 feet road which had become nightmare for the vehicle users as it had developed deep potholes.

The president said that though the 100 feet road belonged to the Shimoga Urban Development Authority, the responsibility of its repairs lay with the municipal council as the tax from the owners of roadside shops was being collected by it. He attributed the delay in taking up the repairs of the roads to paucity of funds.

Water tax

The Municipal Commissioner said that it would become inevitable for the municipal administration to disconnect water supply to the new extension areas if the water tax was not paid immediately.

The meeting adopted a resolution making it compulsory for the developers of the new layouts to hand over them to the municipality with all the basic amenities within 10 years of their formation. It suggested that the power to collect water tax of even the new layouts should rest with the municipal council.

Fund utilisation

The municipal president said that an advisory committee would be set up on the utilisation of the 18 per cent funds for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. His announcement came in the light of the allegations made by the MLC, Mir Azeez Ahmed, and Mariappa that there were irregularities in the utilisation of the funds meant for the welfare of the SCs and STs.

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