KOLHAPUR: The standing committee of the Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Friday decided to keep the property tax rates unchanged for the upcoming financial year.The committee is considered as the major financial decision-making forum of the KMC. Big projects are sanctioned first by the panel and then required to get approval of the general body. The chairman finalises the annual budget and presents it before the GB meeting.Sharangdhar Deshmukh, senior corporator and standing committee chairman, said that it will be unfair to decide the tax hike by the standing committee members. Hence, a proposal has been put forward to the GB which has been called on Tuesday.It would have been the first property tax hike since March 2011 when the tax calculation basis was shifted to ready reckoner rates, if the property tax would have been raised.When contacted civic chief Abhijeet Choudhary said, “We have not raised the property tax rate. However, new properties are required to be included in the tax net to improve the revenue of the corporation. We have decided to keep all the properties tax rates (commercial and household) unchanged.”He added that the survey which is still on to identify new properties will bring in the new resources for the corporation. The hearings for the same are being conducted and the new properties will be liable to pay the tax from April 1, 2019.Choudhary added that the firm which was told to survey the new and old properties in the city in the year 2016 is onto the verge of finishing its work. “However, the administration will first assess and study the report to verify the properties identified.”

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