MANGALORE, Jun 29 (The Hindu): The Mangalore City Corporation has proposed to collect Rs. 5,000 each from the owners of houses, commercial and other establishments in Mannagudda ward to connect the new water supply lines to their buildings, on an experimental basis.

It can go ahead with this experiment only if its council approves this proposal at its meeting on Tuesday.

The new water supply pipelines have been laid in the city under the loan from the Asian Development Bank. The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has laid the pipelines for the civic body under Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environment Management Project (KUDCEMP).

Mayor M. Shankar Bhat told The Hindu on Sunday that the KUIDFC had brought it to the attention of the corporation that providing new water supply lines to houses and other structures might cost Rs. 5,000 each. Hence, the corporation had proposed to collect the amount from the people in Mannagudda ward on an experimental basis. It would decide on collecting the amount from the people in other wards later. The subject would be discussed in the council on Tuesday, he said.

The Mayor said that as the Government had laid an additional main water supply line between the city and Thumbe vented dam, the city would get 16 MLD (million litres a day) more water when the works related to inter-linking of the distribution lines were complete.

Property tax

The Mayor said that the council would take a decision on revising the property tax rate under self-assessment scheme (SAS) on Tuesday. An expert committee constituted to look into this subject had completed its sittings. “It is ready with the recommendations. They will be placed before the council on Tuesday,” he said. The then administrator of the corporation had fixed the tax rate for residential properties at 0.6 per cent (or Rs. 600 for capital value of Rs. 1 lakh) and for commercial properties at 2 per cent (or Rs. 2,000 for capital value of Rs. 1 lakh). However, the councillors had been urging the corporation to revise the tax rate, he said. The Mayor said that the civic body was yet to take a decision on imposing the user fee and connection charge for linking houses and establishments with underground drainage pipelines, newly laid here under the KUDCEMP.