Raviprasad Kamila - The Hindu

MANGALORE, Mar 6: New Mayor M. Shankar Bhat appears to be confusing people on the amount of property tax they need to pay to the corporation under the self-assessment scheme (SAS).

The Mayor reportedly stated in Surathkal on Wednesday that the council of the Mangalore City Corporation had put on hold the implementation of SAS for property tax. He told the same thing to The Hindu on Thursday.

The Mayor reiterated that the council in its first meeting in 2008 had stayed the implementation of SAS in its present form because the tax rate under the scheme, implemented by the then administrator of the corporation, was very high. Many people could not afford to pay the tax at that rate.

However, on cross-checking with the civic body, it was learnt that the corporation council had not passed any resolution staying the implementation of SAS in its first meeting held on June 16, 2008. In the first meeting, the council had discussed, under agenda number 18, about revising the scheme. The minutes of the July 29, 2008 meeting of the council state that it had been resolved at the June meeting to authorise the then Mayor to constitute an expert committee to revise the tax rates under the scheme. The council decided that the committee should prepare its report and place it in the next meeting.

Commissioner of the corporation Sameer Shukla said that the scheme was in force and the council had not stayed its implementation nor had the rate been revised. The scheme had been implemented by the then administrator. “Hence people have to pay property tax under the scheme,” he said.

Whatever revision in tax the council might contemplate of should be approved by the Government. Only then the revised scheme could be implemented, he added. The Mayor, however, maintained that the council had stayed its implementation. “I am not sure if the corporation officials have sent the resolution to the Government for approval.”

Not proposed

The copies of the agenda and the minutes of the monthly meetings from June 2008 to January 2009, which are available with The Hindu, however, reveal that the subject was not listed for discussion in the meetings other than the one held on June 16. A special meeting convened in late 2008 by former Mayor Ganesh Hosabettu failed to arrive at a consensus and the entire Opposition had walked out of that meeting. Mr. Hosabettu had promised on January 28, 2009 that another special meeting would be convened, which could not happen as his term ended before he could do that.

Mr. Bhat told The Hindu on Thursday that an expert committee assigned with the task was yet to submit its report. The corporation would revise the scheme based on its recommendations, he said.

Mr. Bhat said that people could pay the tax as per the rates fixed earlier under the same scheme till it was revised. Asked how could people pay tax when the corporation was not sending any intimation to them about the tax pending, a standard practice under ARV scheme, the Mayor said they could pay as per the notices sent to them a year ago.

Asked if he was not misleading people about the property tax, he said: “Why should people pay higher tax? We have realised that the tax rate fixed under the SAS by the administrator is very high.”

Stating that some people had already paid the tax under the SAS scheme, he said the excess paid, if any, would be adjusted while implementing the revised scheme.