The District Planning Secretariat (SDP) said Monday that it is not carrying out any process to change the methodology of urban stratification in Bogotá. The clarification comes after Bogotá councilor Rolando González denounced that there were supposedly plans to increase strata in the city to gather resources due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The lobbyist said that since 2020 studies were being carried out to change stratification in the run-up to the 2022 elections. According to González, 400,000 properties would be affected, “the vast majority would go on to strata 5 and 6, which would also affect strata 1, 2 and 3 that benefit from subsidies.” However, the councilman's complaint was denied by the SDP itself.
First, the entity pointed out that the strata in Bogotá will continue as they have been managed and argued that they do not have the competence to change the stratification methodology in the city. “The national government, through DANE, is the one who defines the methodology for classifying residential properties in the country into strata,” the Secretariat said in a press release.
In such a case of making such a modification, it would be necessary to carry out a technical and legal process, which “concludes with the adoption of the proposal by the mayor of duty”; however, that is not the case today.
However, the SDP affirmed that it is in its competence to apply the stratification methodology that was stipulated by DANE. In this regard, the entity must prepare studies to assess the social and financial impact of stratification in Bogotá, as defined in Law 505 of 1999, Law 732 of 2002 and Decree 1170 of 2015.
In compliance with these regulations, the Secretariat has carried out nearly 25 studies over the past 14 years. They have shown that, “by 2021, 84% of people, 80% of households and 82% of households are in strata 1, 2 and 3, and only 5.4% of people, 6.2% of households and 6.8% of households are in strata 5 and 6″.
While the SDP must keep the stratification of the city up to date, “this does not imply changes in the distribution of land, nor changes in the way the stratum is currently allocated,” the entity said.
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The stratum and the Property Tax
The Secretariat also specified that the stratum does not define the rate of property tax that taxpayers must pay at this time of year. The value of this financial responsibility is calculated on the cadastral valuation, which integrates the land and building values, and the base rate, which is defined by the Bogotá Council.
“After the tax simplification carried out by the District Administration through Agreement 648 of 2016, stratification in the method of calculating the property rate was eliminated,” said the SDP. Although he assured that there is an exception for homes with valuations equal to or less than 135 statutory monthly minimum wages in force, which have preferential rates.
However, the entity stressed that “it is not necessary to state that it will increase property collection through a change in stratification methodology” and that no such change will be made in the capital.
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