RESENTMENT: Taxpayers holding a meeting in Mysore on Sunday before deciding to file a PIL petition against the city corporation. — PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

MYSORE: Peeved over the increase in property tax, taxpayers in Mysore on Sunday resolved to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition against the Mysore City Corporation (MCC).

Taxpayers and representatives from the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM), Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP), Federation of Tax Payers Association of Mysore and Karnataka State Property Tax Payers Federation questioned the legality of assessing property tax on the basis of market value under the Capital Value Assessment Scheme.

ACICM convener Lakshman told The Hindu that it had been decided to file a PIL against the authorities with regard to four important points.

It was pointed out that the MCC had failed to take cognizance of over 5,000 objections filed by the people against effecting a hike in property tax. The objections were filed on October 22 and 24, but the MCC neither called for a public hearing nor took note of any of the objections and took a unilateral decision to hike the rates.

Mr. Lakshman said that there were two sets of law that were operating with regard to property tax assessment. Section 45 (B) of Karnataka Stamp Duty Act made it clear that property tax should be calculated on the basis of guidance value derived from the actual market value of a premise. But Section 109 of the KMC Act said that only 50 per cent of the guidance value should be taken into account for computing the property tax and hence there was a contradiction, he said.

Further, the law stipulated that the rate of property tax could not be increased for three years and provided for a hike of 15 per cent every three years. According to this, the next hike could be effected only in 2007, Mr. Lakshman said.

The market value of any property could be estimated or assessed by a committee comprising non-governmental organisations, citizens and expert group according to the KMC Act and the Karnataka Town Planning and Country Act. But the committee in Mysore did not abide by the law. A PIL petition would be filed within the next fortnight.

The Federation of Tax Payers Association of Mysore said that the present law led to double taxation as the town municipal council was authorised to increase the tax rate by 0.3 per cent to 0.6 per cent every year. H.V.S. Murthy, State vice-president of the Karnataka State Property Tax Payers Federation, questioned the methodology adopted to fix the market value of a premise.

He called for delinking Section 49 (B) of the Stamp Act from evaluating property tax on the basis of guidance value.

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