To gain additional revenue to meet its civic obligations, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) will broaden its tax base for 2016-17 by including new revenue layouts by bringing them under the property tax net.
A special drive will also be launched in all the eight revenue zones of the MCC from Monday to shore up its revenue collections.
Mayor B.L. Bhyrappa told The Hindu that the MCC envisaged a target of Rs.199.8 crore for the current financial year from property tax alone, a steep increase from previous year’s target of Rs.130 crore.
The target for this fiscal includes the shortfall accrued during 2015-16, said Mr. Bhyrappa who allayed scepticism over meeting the enhanced target.
The transfer of 19 new layouts from MUDA to MCC and the pending transfer of an additional 35 to 40 private layouts to the corporation limits has added to the MCC’s new-found confidence in meeting the revenue target.
The MCC has plans to collect tax and penalties from residents in areas who have traditionally not paid tax — mainly the koppals which are islands of dense haphazard growth that have retained their rural or rustic ambience beyond which the new city has grown. “Almost 70 per cent of the residents in these areas do not pay any tax though these localities are provided with all civic amenities at a steep cost by the MCC,” said Mr. Bhyrappa.
There are nearly 2 lakh registered properties within the MCC’s ambit but only about 50 per cent to 60 per cent of them pay the tax regularly.
Maintenance of roads, provision of drinking water and streetlights are the main components of the MCC expenditure towards civic amenities but the maintenance costs were increasing while the revenue inflow to the corporation coffers was not keeping pace with it.
However, the MCC’s mechanism to handle its revenue, mainly the property tax, has come in for stringent criticism from NGOs like the Mysore Grahakara Parishat (MGP) which has faulted it for not digitising the property records and the database. “The MCC has not shored up its tax collection mechanism and is only issuing statements,” said R. Chandraprakash of the MGP.
The Mayor admitted to the shortcomings but said that there was very little scope for local councillors to bring about any improvement as any initiative had to be through the Directorate of Municipal Administration.
