Ordinance for self-assessment scheme

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, MAY 15. The State Government will promulgate an ordinance to introduce the self-assessment scheme for property tax in the jurisdiction of all city corporations and municipalities. The Ordinance will also include the Bangalore metropolitan region and Mysore city.

In the Government's view the self-assessment scheme did not have the lacunae found in the earlier scheme where the property tax was collected on an ad hoc basis based on the whims and fancies of tax inspectors. The Government wanted to enact a piece of legislation during the recent Budget session of the Legislature but the delay in drafting the Bill has now prompted it to promulgate an Ordinance in about a month.

The Minister for Urban Development, Mr. B. B. Chimmannakatti, told presspersons here today that the Government had also decided to regularise the unauthorised drinking water connections in areas under city corporations and municipalities. According to estimation, nearly 40 per cent of water connections were unauthorised and their number was increasing.

He said the Government would serve a notice to those who were unauthorisedly drawing water from drinking water lines and direct them to pay a penalty. Further, the consumers in the jurisdiction of all corporations and municipalities would have to pay bulk charges of Rs. 45 a month per connection. At present, each municipality charged differently, and there were many who charged although they were not supplied drinking water for several days on end. The Urban Development Department would shortly conduct a survey to ascertain the number of drinking water connections in the State. The minister said the Government had also directed the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWSDB) to manage all the water supply schemes in the State. Under the prevailing system, the KUWSDB executed new schemes and handed them over to the respective municipalities or corporations. The latter had represented to the Government for years that they were unable to maintain the water supply lines. The KUWSDB would be changed into a corporation which should enable it to raise funds from financial institutions, he added.

Mr. Chimmannakatti said the State Government required around Rs. 1,500 crores to complete the drinking water schemes. Approval had been granted to obtain a Rs. 150-crore loan from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation to complete 47 schemes.

On the unauthorised structures under municipalities and city corporations, the minister said the Government would like to regularise them with a penalty provided such structures were not on important roads or on government lands. According to a survey conducted in 1995, there were over 1.5 lakh unauthorised constructions.

However only 40,000 of such constructions were regularised that year. The number of unauthorised structures under municipalities and city corporations now was about two lakhs, he added.

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Section  : Regional
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