BLR is not (yet) a Metro city. Guess why?

In what’s a bizarre news of sorts, Bangalore city has not (yet) been classified as a Metro city. Quite surprising, say citizens and netizens alike.

Pankaj Chaudhary, Union Minister of State (in the middle of something) for Finance stated in the Lok Sabha during the just concluded Parliament session.

According to current tax policies, Bengaluru city doesn’t qualify to be a metro city.

Reason?

The current Income Tax policy offers 50% House Rent Allowance (HRA) for exemption only in the metro cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

For all other cities, the HRA deduction is limited to 40%. This, according to the Income Tax laws that came up in the 1960s.

For all other places in India, concerning special allowance for residential accommodation under section 10(13A) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is kept at a different slab, the Minister said.

Bangalore is the IT hub of India, with over 67,000 companies registered in the field of Information & Technology (IT).

An estimated 15 lakh people are said to be working in the IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES) companies in the city, which has an estimated population of 1 crore people.

There are 25 shopping malls in the Silicon Valley of India and over 50,000 shops and restaurants in the city which never sleeps.

The Bangalore International Airport registered its highest traffic of 37.5 mn passengers for the FY 23-24, making it the third busiest airport in the country after Delhi and Mumbai.