Mangaluru: Property owners in Mangaluru need to brace up to pay enhanced property tax from the next fiscal as the city corporation on Thursday approved a 15 per cent hike in tax under the self-assessment scheme (SAS), to become effective on April 1, 2017.

The resolution was passed amid stiff resistance from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors at a special meeting here. However, the ruling Congress relied upon Section 109A of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976 that provides for the hike and claimed that 15 per cent was the lowest as the provision provides for a hike up to 30 per cent.

Though the Act mandates periodical revision of property tax, the opposition BJP members left no chance to attack the Congress on the ground that the party had promised not to revise property tax in the run-up to the elections to the civic body.

When the Congress members cited the Act, the BJP councillors asked the former were they not aware of the legal provisions before making the poll promise.

When the debate moved towards as to who introduced SAS in the present form, Commissioner Mohammad Nazeer clarified that the resolution was moved by the then Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Maheshwara Rao, who was also the Administrator of the corporation, on October 30, 2007.

It was ratified by the Council next year when BJP’s Ganesh Hosabettu was the Mayor. The corporation revised property tax twice since then — in April 2011 and April 2014 — as mandated under the Act, while the next revision is due on April 1, 2017.

The commissioner said tha the corporation has roped in Diya Systems to collect property data for 25 wards on a pilot basis. After the success of the pilot, data for the remaining 35 wards would be collected, he said. Mr. Nazeer acknowledged that lack of up-to-date data about over 1.95 lakh property has affected revenue collection of the civic body.