VIJAYAWADA: Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Botcha Satyanarayana has said the property tax hike in urban local bodies will not exceed 15 per cent of the existing tax and the tax for structures built in less than 330 sq ft of land is fixed at Rs 50. Speaking to mediapersons in Anantapur on Wednesday, Botcha said the State government had enacted an Act by which the property tax cannot be increased by more than 15 per cent of the existing tax.
He said the old tax assessment system had several loopholes wherein households could use their influence or even bribe civic officials to get their property tax minimised. “We have come up with the new system after studying the system in several States,’’ he said.
Comparing the tax system in Andhra Pradesh with that of Karnataka, Botcha said if the property tax of a building in AP is Rs 1,000, the same building attracts Rs 5,000 tax in Karnataka. “If we go by the Karnataka model, the tax hike would have been five times more. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy strongly opposed the five-fold hike,” Botcha said.
“It was then we put before Jagan the suggestion of the Tax Payers’ Association, which favoured 25% hike. The Chief Minister directed that the increase be only 15 per cent and wanted the same included in the Act,’’ he said.