In what will come as a relief to property owners, the Urban Development Department (UDD) has sought to amend the Karnataka Planning Authorities Rules, 2020, that prescribe a hefty betterment fee for development in the city. The UDD wants to reduce the betterment fee.
A draft notification published recently seeks to reduce betterment charges from the range of 0.5% - 1.5% of the market value of the property to the range of 0.2% - 0.5%. The draft is open for filing objections, and will be notified in April, sources said.
This comes after widespread opposition to hefty betterment fees prescribed in Karnataka Planning Authorities Rules, 2020, which for the first time had decided that the fee should be a function of market value of the property while earlier it was a fixed amount.
Moreover, the way the notification of the Rules was worded had created chaos, prompting the commissioners of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to seek several clarifications from the State government. The UDD has issued a series of clarifications and directions to prevent properties being charged betterment fees multiple times, amending its earlier order that had led to confusion in the city.
The way Rules, 2020 was worded, the civic body was forced to serve notices for betterment fee for the entire extent of the property during extension or renovation, even for properties that had already paid the fee. This, along with increased charges, resulted in property owners seeking to expand or renovate existing properties being served notices to the tune of several lakhs of rupees.
K. Ramkumar, a resident of Girinagar, for instance was served a notice for a betterment fee of ₹2.19 lakh as he sought to add a room to his house built on a 40X60 site. He had already paid the betterment fee when he built the house several years ago.
UDD gives clarity
The UDD has now said that the betterment fee has to be charged for the whole extent of the property for the first development and later only to the extent of the built-up area being added. This will essentially prevent the betterment fee from being levied multiple times, civic sources said.
The UDD has also directed the BDA to declare a “core area”. This will include areas that existed before the enactment of Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961 “for relaxing the collection of the fee, cess and surcharges within such an area”. However, properties seeking relief under Akrama-Sakrama will not be given this relaxation.
This means that Mr. Ramkumar will no longer have to fork out another betterment fee. “It was ridiculous that the civic body issued a notice to pay ₹2.19 lakh to add a room to my house. I have been corresponding with the BBMP protesting the unfairness of the whole process for several months now. The UDD order and clarification have come as a relief. But policy making divorced from ground reality created chaos for over a year,” he said.