BBMP's Patil committee to bring defaulters into property tax net

Bengaluru: To mop up additional tax revenues, the onus of bringing unaccounted for properties under the tax net has been given to the BBMP restructuring committee headed by former chief secretary B.S. Patil, said M.K. Gunashekar, chairman of the Taxation and Finance committee.

He told reporters on Monday that hundreds of properties are being constructed in a short span and citizens should pay the property tax voluntarily and not under 
coercion. 

Since several properties are left out of the tax net, the BBMP is losing revenue and finding it difficult to enhance the property tax.

To bring all new and old properties under the tax net, the responsibility has been entrusted to the restructuring committee and a resolution has been passed in this regard, he said. The committee, which has taken up a pilot study to mobilise revenues, will focus on bringing unaccounted for properties under the net. To begin with, the pilot study will be taken up at Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and Yelahanka.

The revenue leakage is estimated at Rs 200 crore and 343 properties are either out of the net or paying lesser amounts. This trend has been observed at Marathahalli, Mahadevapura and Whitefield areas and the committee will study them, Mr Gunashekar said.

There is an increase in the property tax collection compared to last five years. 2017-18 saw a collection of Rs 1,756 crore, of which Rs 468 crore was collected online. About two lakh new properties have been added to the tax net, he said.
Notices have been issued buildings which have undervalued or paying lesser property tax after getting the total station survey done.

As per the survey, the BBMP has to get Rs 153 crore from 12 buildings. BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad has ordered collection of arrears of '60 crore from the Bangalore Turf Club. Besides, tenders have been floated for smart parking on 85 roads, he said.