Two bills passed in Assembly

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Two Bills introduced by the De puty Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar were passed in the Assembly on Tuesday.

The two Bills were the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to slash penalties on property tax by half.

The other is the Karnataka Town and Rural Planning 1961 (Amendment) Bill. The Bills were taken up by Shivakumar since Bengaluru Development is one of the portfolios he holds.

Hailing it as a “tax payer friendly Bill”, he said that if passed, the law would be relevant to Bengaluru Urban district.

He argued that the conditions in the Bill were a win-win since it would save the taxpayer “a whopping Rs 2,700 crores” while netting the BBMP Rs 1,000 crores.

“Bangaloreans had to pay heavy penalties as the previous BJP government had passed the previous amendment bill which doubled the penalties on property tax dues resulting in a huge burden on the property tax payers. The new amendment passed by the Congress government has reduced the penalty burden on Bangaloreans significantly,” Shivakumar told the Assembly.

“This important Amendment will benefit a total of 13 to 15 lakh people in Bengaluru city including 5.51 lakh taxpayers, 5-7 lakh people outside the property tax bracket and 3 lakh partial property tax payers. The Amendment Bill has a provision for a special rebate to poor segments of the society.