Prime properties to attract more taxes

Prime properties to attract more taxes
DH News Service, Bangalore:


Owners with properties located in prime areas will feel the heat from this year as they will have to pay property taxes of more than 50 per cent extra than what they were paying previously.

Despite the government deciding to withdraw its proposed hike in the property tax by 20 per cent, many areas of the City will be paying heavily. As the BBMP has categorised zones not on the basis of localities but on the basis of important lanes and roads with ‘fully loaded amenities’ for tax collection, the owners of properties on such roads will shell off more than what they were paying previously.

Till now the owners of the hot properties were getting cover of slums and houses of lower and middle income groups from paying hefty property taxes but this time the BBMP woke up to rate each and every lane of the locality differently as per their net value in the market. Though the government has decided not to go with 20 per cent hike in taxes, due to the new categorisation, many areas would be paying taxes more than 50 per cent.
For instance property on St Marks Road was till now paying taxes as per E Zone but for enjoying the status of ‘the heart of Bangalore’, the owner will be forced to pay at least 50 per cent more than what he was paying previously.

A similar case is with Malleshwaram Swimming Pool Extension. Till now the owner was paying around Rs 1,689 for being in Zone E but as the property has now being brought under the Zone C, people will have to pay around Rs 2,533.

Sources in the BBMP have called it scientific saying that all properties cannot be gauged equally for being located in a particular area. “Slums and posh areas cannot be rated equally,” said a source