The BBMP has proposed to collect transport cess, along with property tax, from the next financial year. The issue is likely to come up before the BBMP council’s subject meeting on Tuesday.
According to sources, the transport cess will be 2% of the property tax and will be transferred to the Transport Department.
The proposal is being tabled before the council for the second time. The council had passed a resolution in 2014 — when the proposal to collect transport cess was first tabled — to not collect it as it would burden lakhs of property owners. Sources said the proposal is being tabled again before the council, after audit objections were raised by the CAG.
Sources added that the Transport Department, in a proposal sent to the State government a few years ago, justified the need to collect transport cess by pointing out that the city’s poor road condition was leading to disrepair of many BMTC buses. Following this, the Urban Development Department had even amended the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976, to allow collection of the cess.
The new proposal states that the transport cess, including arrears from 2013-14, will have to be paid in the 2019-20 fiscal.