Dhaka North City Corporation has decided to count Tk 24 per square feet, a 33 per cent increase from existing rate, as home rent in Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara area in realising holding tax.
The city authorities will charge 12 per cent of the total amount of rent, on the basis of Tk 24 per sq ft, as holding tax from July next.
At a programme to inaugurate the automation of collecting holding tax on Wednesday, DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam said the present rent, considered Tk 18 per sq ft while counting holding tax according to 2008 rates, will be hiked from July.
“Rent in those areas is no longer so low, so we will make adjustments,” Atiqul said.
In a seminar in September 2021, Local Government Minister Md Tajul Islam urged the city corporation to hike the holding tax, and cost of gas and water connections in these areas.
On Wednesday, Tajul reiterated his proposal during the inauguration ceremony.
He said the holding tax and connection cost of water, gas and electricity should be determined regionally.
“If utility service charges in Gulshan-Banani-Baridhara and Jatrabari remain the same, no one will choose to stay in Jatrabari where the facilities are fewer than in the posh neighbourhoods. So setting zone-based service costs is required now,” Tajul said.
Mayor Atiqul said the automation of tax collection will reduce complaints of hassles and corruption from the citizens. He pointed out that dishonest tax collectors harass people with threats.
“They go to people’s houses with a lace and upon seeing that, people resort to negotiations - that’s the reality.”
Mentioning how “innumerable” the rules of paying taxes are, Atiqul said, “[Tax collectors] instil baseless fear into people’s minds to harass them. Even after collecting taxes from 10 citizens, they submit eight of those to the city corporation… I’ve seen thousands of such cases.”
There are 277,000 taxpayers in DNCC, he added.
