Bengaluru: Pay property tax or get ready to lose your furniture

Bengaluru: Haven't paid your property tax yet? You may be in for trouble as the BBMP could come into your home and take away your television, referigerator, washing machine or furniture  to recover your  dues.

Come April 1 and the civic agency intends to begin issuing 15 days' notice to the defaulters and then go ahead and seize their movable properties if they refuse to pay up even then.

Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, chairman of the civic agency’s Taxation and Finance Committee, Gunashekar said while it could not seize immovable properties, it could confiscate the movable ones if need be.

“Property tax is one of our major sources of revenue, but we have crores pending collection as many haven't paid it. So now BBMP Commissioner, Manjunath Prasad has asked us to seize the movable properties of defaulters after giving them  15 days notice,” he added, warning that the rule would apply to all properties, whether commercial or residential.

“We will go ahead and seize their movable properties in tune with the tax due. The seized items will then be auctioned publicly and the money used to settle the concerned property owner's taxes," he explained.

With around 18.5 lakh properties in its jurisdiction , the BBMP should be able to collect Rs 4,000 crore in property tax every year. But even in the financial year 2016-17 its collection is only now touching Rs 2,000 crore although it had hoped to collect at least Rs 3,000 crore,   according to sources.

 Money matters

• From April 1, the  BBMP will begin issuing 15 days' notice to all property tax defaulters. If they don’t pay up it will confiscate their movable properties like television, refrigerator and furniture and auction them to settle their dues.
•  With around 18.5 lakh properties in its jurisdiction, the BBMP can collect over Rs 4,000 crore from property tax alone, but it is able to meet only half this target at present.