BENGALURU: The Bangalore Development Authority on Wednesday reduced the property tax by 50 per cent for vacant sites. This follows public criticism of the property tax hike effected in April on vacant sites and on properties built on sites. However, the tax hike for buildings will continue.
According to officials, the hike was effected by fixing the BDA property tax as 1/1000th of Guidance Value (fixed by the Stamps and Registration Department) in the case of 50x80 sqft and 40x60 sqft and 1/2000th of the Guidance Value in the case of 20x30 sqft and 30x40 sqft sites. The hike was effected after a decade and was aimed at bringing the property tax charged by BDA on par with the property tax levied by the BBMP, the officials said.
“Ever since we announced the hike, we have received many letters from the public opposing the move and calling it very high. Hence, we have decided to reduce the hike in the case of empty sites alone. The hike effected for buildings built on the sites will continue,” a top official said.
According to the decision taken during the Board meeting, the revised property tax has now been fixed as 1/2000th of the Guidance Value for sites of higher dimensions and 1/4000th of the Guidance Value for sites of small dimensions.
The hike will come into effect only for BDA Layouts and BDA-approved Layouts (layouts developed by private developers and approved by BDA).
While there are 69 layouts developed by BDA in the City, only 12 are currently in its possession and the remaining have been handed over to BBMP.
BDA Layouts are: HRBR Layout, OMBR Layout, Anjanapura Township, Banashankari, Visvesvaraya Layout, Arkavathy Layout, Nandini Layout, JP Nagar, BTM Layout, Arkavathy Layout Extension and Visveswaraiah Layout extension. There are 300 plus BDA approved Layouts spread across the city.