The trade and business community in Mysuru is heaving a sigh of relief as its 15-year-old demand has finally been met. Tthe Mysuru City Corporation is withdrawing levy of taxes under “Super Commercial” category and instead impose uniform rates of taxes to all commercial properties in the city from April 1 onwards.
The traders and businessmen claimed that the “super commercial tax” existed only in Mysuru and it had put a lot of burden on them. Therefore, they were after the MCC for dropping the category, suggesting that it collect taxes without categorising the properties as commercial or super commercial.
“The MCC decision eases a lot of burden on traders. We thank all those who supported the efforts to get the things done as it was the long-pending demand of the trade and business community here,” said B.S. Prashanth, President, Federation of Organisations and Associations of Mysuru (FOAM).
Commissioner of Mysuru City Corporation Lakshmikanth Reddy issued a notification dated February 23, in anticipation of approval from the MCC council, for dropping the super commercial category from the taxation system and bringing in uniform commercial rates for the collection of property taxes from April 1 onwards.
The decision comes after a meeting by Mayor Sunanda Palanetra and others, which resolved to end the super commercial category as it was causing burden on the taxpayers.
M.R. Rajaram, Secretary, FOAM, Mysuru said the commercial taxes in Mysuru are higher than Bengaluru due to flaws in the MCC’’s taxation system. “A film theatre in the city centre of Mysuru pays around ₹9 lakh per annum as property tax while a similar theatre in the heart of Bengaluru pays just about ₹87,000. The tax in Mysuru is 200-300 per cent more than Bengaluru and this was all because of the faulty calculation done when the SAS was introduced,” he claimed.
While welcoming the removal of the super commercial category, he said, despite this, the tax is higher and therefore the gaps in the taxation system must be corrected so that the benefits are passed on to the trade and business community who have been promptly paying “higher taxes” all these years since 2007.
“I also hope that the MCC does not increase the commercial tax rates after withdrawing the super commercial taxes. If this is done, then there is no relief to the taxpayers,” he argued, while asking the MCC whether the super commercial taxes collected all these years will be adjusted in the future taxes since super commercial as per his understanding is ‘‘wrong’ and ‘illegal’..
Mr. Rajaram, who is also the secretary of Mysuru Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, sought simplification of the tax system here while stating that the tax in Mysuru is being calculated in 48 stages while it was done in 7 stages in Bengaluru. This needs to be simplified for everyone’s good, he suggested.
FOAM Vice-President C. Narayana Gowda said there is no logic behind separating the taxes into “commercial” and “super commercial tax”. This has caused a burden to cinema halls, hotels and marriage halls. The previous Commissioner had categorised the “super commercial” into “commercial B” but the tax rate remained the same, and did not help the traders, he said.
