Property tax still under SAS regime

BANGALORE: Caught in the election melee, the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) has not yet officially opened property tax collection or stated whether taxes will be collected as per the old rates or the proposed Capital Value System (CVS). These announcements should have been made before the new fiscal, April 1.
Never too late. Here it’s: The BCC will collect taxes as per the existing SAS rates and payments can be made in revenue offices or at the designated banks.Property tax can be paid from April 1 to May 30 and the second instalment from October 1 to November 30. Since the tax is being collected under the SAS for the new fiscal, the BCC cannot change the scheme midway, officials said.
After effecting an amendment last year, the commissioner placed the CVS proposal before the BCC Council for approval. The subject was brought up before the election dates were announced but to no avail. Once the code of conduct came into force, the council meetings could not be held and the subject is on the back burner ever since, a BCC official said.
The government notified in June the Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Ordinance 2003, which gave impetus to the CVS. The six city corporations in Karnataka, including the BCC, were supposed to have implemented the CVS from this fiscal.
As per the amendment, the corporations should open property tax collections only once a year as against the current practice of twice a year, and payments can be made in three months — April, May or June.
The SAS introduced in 2000 adopts the annual ratable value formula for taxation, while the CVS is based on the market value of the property.