Department of Stamps and Registration kept MCC in the dark before revising guidance value of properties, alleges Mayor

Mangaluru Mayor accuses Department of Stamps and Registration of hiking property tax without consulting city corporation.

With the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) council blaming each other for the hike in property tax for 2024-25, Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur alleged here on Monday, March 4, that the Department of Stamps and Registration kept the corporation in the dark before hiking the guidance value of properties in the city last year.

Addressing presspersons, the Mayor reiterated that property tax for the coming financial year has gone up steeply as the Commissioner of the corporation has instructed the revenue officials to keep the guidance value notified by the State government on October 1, 2023, as the base for hiking the tax against the unanimous decision of the council which in its meeting in this January resolved to take the guidance value notified by the government on February 19, 2021 as the base and hike the tax by 3%.

The Mayor said that the Department of Stamps and Registration should have had a representative from the corporation as a member in the sub-committee of the district-level valuation committee formed last year for revising the guidance value.

However, the Office of the District Registrar under the Department of Stamps and Registration did not include the corporation’s representative in the sub-committee. The office even did not consult the civic body before revising the guidance value which has been doubled in some wards. In some other wards, the same guidance value has been fixed for the main roads and interior roads as well, he alleged adding that hence the property tax for the coming financial year has gone up steeply.

The Mayor said that the Offices of the District Registrar, Sub-Registrar, Tahsildar, and Survey Department are involved in revising the guidance value of properties. But none consulted the corporation and took it into confidence before the revision, he maintained.

The Mayor alleged that the Congress government increased the guidance value of properties last October as it faced a dearth of funds due to the diversion of funds for its guarantee schemes. Hence, the government wanted to augment its revenue.

“The local body should be taken into confidence before revising the guidance value of properties,” the Mayor said.