Bengaluru: Former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar moved a private bill called the Karnataka State Marriages (Registration and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2015 which proposes hefty luxury tax on lavish weddings.
All ostentatious weddings could come under the scanner of the state government if this bill proposed in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday gets approval.
A law-maker said that weddings with budgets in excess of Rs five lakhs or 1,000 invitees would be taxed in case the bill garners adequate support to be enacted as legislation. Legislators are expected to discuss the bill sometime next week.
Law minister TB Jayachandra said, “Not only do they spend lavishly but they also waste large quantity of food. It has influenced people in rural areas so much so that they sell available property to afford such unnecessary expenditure.” He added that while proposing such a bill a year ago, he was forced to drop the idea following a stiff opposition from his own partymen.
As per the earlier proposal, the government ought to rein in those who spend up to Rs 7,000 for each invitation card by imposing luxury tax. The government had then said that taxes collected from such big budget weddings would be used to sponsor marriages of young women from poor families.
