Ctg city corp to increase holding tax from July

• Holding tax to double from next fiscal year
• Authorities will send notices to house owners regarding new tax rate within June
• If the building owners have any objection, they can appeal against it
• Rising household taxes will create social unrest amid rising commodity prices
• The tax is determined once every five years

House owners under the Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) will have to pay almost double the holding tax than before from the next financial year. This comes in light of the move by the local government ministry to withdraw the suspension order on the increased tax rate formulated in FY 2017-18.

According to sources, the authorities will send notices to house owners regarding the new tax rate within June as Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury has written to the authorities concerned to lift the suspension.

In his election manifesto, however, the mayor had promised not to raise taxes.

Confirming the report, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, chief revenue officer of CCC, told The Business Standard, "The local government ministry has lifted the suspension on holding tax. Therefore, the holding tax will be levied from next July. The authorities will send out notices to building owners before levying the tax."

"If the building owners have any objection, they can appeal against it. The holding tax will be finally determined after the hearing," he added.

However, leaders of Chattogram Taxpayers Protection Council have expressed their concerns regarding the decision of the CCC.

They said rising household taxes will create social unrest amid rising commodity prices as both house owners and tenants will be under pressure.

According to the City Corporation Taxation Rules, the tax is determined in the city corporation areas once every five years.

The revaluation of holding and land taxes in the CCC started in 2016 under then mayor AJM Nasir Uddin, with the process continuing till January 2017 in two phases. The documents were released in August that year.

After the revaluation, the CCC proposed to collect around Tk851.30 crore in FY 2017-18 against 185,248 holdings.

When citizens launched a movement against the proposal, the late CCC mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury and former mayor Manzur Alam expressed their solidarity with the movement. Later, the issue of raising holding tax was suspended due to the protest.

Now the CCC has completed all arrangements for raising the holding tax as per the revaluation of FY 2017-18 from the upcoming financial year.

Mohammad Shahidul Alam, chief executive officer of the CCC, said, "There will be no new evaluation of holding taxes. It will be imposed as per the amount fixed during the tenure of former mayor AJM Nasir Uddin."

The leaders of the Taxpayers Protection Council said that holding taxes can be increased by 10% as per the House Rent Law of 1991 but the city corporation has proposed increasing it by 100%.

Hasan Maruf Rumi, a spokesman for Chattogram Taxpayers Protection Council, said, "The current mayor had said before the election that no tax would be raised if he was elected. But he sent a letter to the government offices concerned on lifting the suspension on the revaluation just after being elected. The government lifted the suspension in response to his letter."

When contacted, Mayor Rezaul Karim Chowdhury said, "Holding tax will not be increased, only tax coverage will be expanded."

However, the leaders of the Taxpayer Protection Council are not satisfied with the mayor's assurance.

Hassan Maruf Rumi said, "The holding tax imposed during the tenure of former mayor AJM Nasir Uddin was unbearable. In some areas, it was increased 10-20 times. The current mayor has not made his position clear on this issue. If he tries to impose the increased holding tax on us, we will have no alternative to launching a protest movement."