By Express News Service

BENGALURU: To make ends meet on improving the city’s infrastructure, the BBMP council on Tuesday decided to collect an additional two per cent on property tax as road transport tax.

Despite opposition from corporators, the council approved the proposal and Mayor M Goutham Kumar said that it was being done to improve the city’s infrastructure. He said: “An estimated amount of Rs 150 crore will be generated and it will be solely used by BBMP for infrastructural works. We will not give a share of the fund to the government,” he said.

Many councilors demanded that the money be given to transport department and agencies, but the mayor said: “We take responsibility of the roads. If something happens to people on roads, BBMP will be held responsible. The palike is asked to maintain the roads and this tax will be collected and solely utilised by the local body.”

As soon as the announcement was made public, contradictory statements started pouring in. Explaining the taxation, BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar told Express that the money will go to the urban transport fund, where the money will be used for infrastructure works and land acquisition. “The proposal has been approved by the government and the urban development department; it just came to the BBMP council for ratification. The property being collected is not sufficient, it is merely Rs 3,000 crore, and it has not been revised since 2016,” he said.

The commissioner pointed out that there was a need of at least Rs 11,000 crore for Metro and other infrastructure works – flyover and underpass construction, adding more buses and others. Most importantly, a huge sum was required for land acquisition to speed up works.