BENGALURU: Property tax is due to be hiked for Bengaluru and other corporation and municipal bodies which come under the Karnataka Muncipal Corporation (KMC) Act. The cabinet meeting conducted by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa took up the issue on Wednesday, following a direction by Union authorities. Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said Karnataka has decided to revise property tax on houses and vacant sites under the KMC Act Sections 109 and 109A. “We are keeping user fee pending and increasing property tax, this will help us increase borrowing and GSDP,’’ he said.
Vacant sites that measure less than 1000 sqft are exempt from property tax. Property tax owners will benefit this year, as guidance value is the measure for calculating tax, and has been reduced from 50 per cent to 25 per cent, Madhuswamy said. The Centre had issued a direction to amend it before January 25.
He said the Tatas had been roped in to modernise 155 ITI institutions, and Tata Technologies was making a substantial investment to upgrade these institutions by bearing 88 per cent of the total project cost of about Rs 4,600 crore. Cabinet approvals have been given for this.
The cabinet accorded permission to release Rs 5 crore for a mammoth 325-ft bronze statue of Basaveshwara in Murugharajendra Mutt in Chitradurga. The government had granted Rs 20 crore for the project and released Rs 10 crore, and will now release an additional Rs 5 crore.With a severe shortage of police quarters, Rs 2,000 crore would be spent to put up 10,034 quarters across the state over a 60-month period, for which approvals have been granted.
Around 96 lakes and tanks will be filled up through the Hemavathi-Yettinahole scheme in the Tumakuru-Tiptur region, and Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for this project through the minor irrigation department. The government has agreed to release Rs 15 crore for sericulture farmers under pending Covid subsidy.