Bengaluru: MP Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday December 13 urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to formally recognise Bengaluru as a metropolitan City to raise the House Rental Allowance (HRA) deduction allowed to determine income taxes for the City residents to 50 per cent of salary, as is the case in other metropolitan cities.
The MP noted during the Zero Hour Discussion in Parliament that only Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai are considered metropolitan cities, and residents of these cities are entitled to a maximum HRA deduction of 50 per cent while residents of other Indian cities, including Bengaluru, are only permitted to claim a maximum HRA deduction of 40 per cent.
“Bengaluru has one of the highest salaried workforces in the country. I ask the Finance Minister to review the I-T rules and include Bengaluru and other similar cities in the list of metropolitan cities under the rules for the HRA Housing Rental Allowance deduction up to 50 per cent,” he said.
