The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BBMP classifying 20,000 roads to compute tax

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Tuesday, Nov 25, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BBMP classifying 20,000 roads to compute tax

Krishnaprasad

It will help people calculate tax accurately

Owners can identify the zone to which their property belongs to
Lump sum annual property tax proposed for telecom towers

Bangalore: Nearly 20,000 streets are being identified by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to classify them under different zones for assessment of property tax based on the Unit Area Value (UAV).

In the earlier system, the BBMP had identified only about 2,000 streets and had classified them into six zones while fixing the unit rate for each zone.

Of the 20,000 streets now identified, nearly 17,000 streets are situated in erstwhile Bangalore city and the remaining streets are in the areas that are newly added to the city while creating Greater Bangalore and formation of the BBMP.

According to officials, identification of majority of the streets, which include many crossroads, will lessen the confusion among the property owners to know the zone to which their property belongs to.

Criteria

According to the proposed rule, tax for properties situated in any street or area or locality which does not figure in the list of classification of zones, will have to be calculated based on the highest rates applicable to the nearest neighbouring street or area or locality.

Classification of majority of streets, which was not done previously, will help the people to calculate tax accurately without leaving doubts about considering the neighbouring street or area or locality.

In case where a particular street or area or locality has been included under higher zone, the property tax might go up by 15 to 18 per cent, the officials pointed out.

However, the process of identification of streets could not be done extensively in case of areas that were recently added to the BBMP due to non-availability of complete geographical data.

Lump sum tax

Meanwhile, as per the draft BBMP Property Tax Rule, 2008 published by the Government has proposed to levy a lump sum annual property tax of Rs.10,000 on the telecommunication towers put up on residential buildings.

The tax will be Rs.15,000 per annum for such towers put up on non-residential buildings.

Hoardings

Similarly, the rule proposes to levy a property tax of Rs. 10,000 annually on any advertising hoarding or billboard including electronic or digital display boards having size less than 150 square feet in zone B of zonal classification made as per the advertisement byelaw.

It will be Rs. 12,000 for those exceeding 150 sq ft.

The tax will be Rs. 7,000 for such advertisement structures having size lesser than 150 sq ft situated in other zones and Rs. 10,000 for those exceeding 150 sq ft, the notification said.

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