The Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) is digitising property records, and the project is expected to be completed within the next four months. This will also help MUDA update its property registry as all records since the authority’s inception in 1903 will be digitised.
MUDA chairman K.R. Mohan Kumar told The Hindu that the total number of documents pertaining to properties in Mysuru was in excess of 1.75 lakh and all of them are being digitised. MUDA, which was constituted as the City Improvement Trust Board, has distributed about 42,000 sites.
A special officer has been nominated for the purpose and so far, about 35,000 records have been digitised. This is a top priority programme, Mr. Mohan Kumar said.
In addition, records on property developed by private players on land allotted by MUDA are also being digitised, besides commercial properties on MUDA land. The authority will also draw on the records digitised under the Urban Property Ownership Project, which has created a digital database of properties in Mysuru.
Once completed, the database will help streamline property tax payment, which involves physical verification of the previous year’s tax receipt in the absence of computerised records.
Double trouble
This will also bring to an end the current procedure for payment of property tax that entails the owners to bring the previous year’s receipt as proof of being up to date with regard to tax payment. In the event a property owner has misplaced the receipt, MUDA insists that the owner pay the previous year’s tax as well. The practice amounts to harassment of taxpayers.
When the issue was brought to the attention of the MUDA chairman, he said that property owners should instead approach the staff concerned and ask for the amount due against a particular property. “The staff is duty-bound to verify the records in the register and give the details,” he said. However, most taxpayers comply with the demand because of lack of time or will to negotiate with bureaucracy.
It is pertinent to note that a majority of the properties in the city have been transferred to the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), which receives the property tax. But in case of vacant sites and localities yet to be transferred to MCC, MUDA collects the tax, which tends to be nominal.
