Karnataka Assembly passes bill slashing penalty on property tax in Bengaluru by 50 percent
Bengaluru, Feb 20: The Karnataka Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to slash the penalty on property taxes in Bengaluru city limits by 50 percent.
The bill is titled Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Amendment Bill 2024. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru development portfolio, tabled the bill in the Legislative Assembly.
"With the passing of this Amendment Bill, the penalty amount is halved, saving Bengalureans a whopping Rs 2,700 crores. The BBMP will be able to collect penalties worth Rs 1000 crore," a statement issued by Shivakumar's office said.
This important amendment will benefit around 13 to 15 lakh people in Bengaluru city including 5.51 lakh taxpayers, five to seven lakh people outside the property tax bracket and three lakh partial property taxpayers, it added.
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Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the BJP would oppose this bill as it will lead to large scale corruption.
The Amendment Bill has a provision to give a special rebate to the poor. Government residential buildings and buildings in slums are exempt from property tax penalties. Buildings up to 1,000 square feet which are for own use are exempt from property tax penalties.
Under the amendment bill, residential and mixed-use property owners will have to pay property tax penalties only for a maximum period of five years irrespective of the default duration. Interest has been waived off for dues beyond five years.
"This is a taxpayer-friendly amendment. We have brought this Bill to help the common people though it is a burden on the government," Shivakumar told the Assembly.
He charged that the property owners in Bengaluru had to pay heavy penalties as the previous BJP government had passed an amendment bill which doubled the penalties resulting in a huge burden on the property tax payers.
The new amendment passed by the Congress government has reduced the penalty burden on the property owners significantly, he added.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
