The BBMP could easily collect more than Rs 5,000 crore in property tax alone if it brings tax evaders into the net, but the city corporation seems to be in no mood to do the hard work. Instead, it has chosen to tax those who already pay honestly even more by raising rates and zonal charges. If it’s any consolation, the BBMP has made efforts to make it easy to pay up.
The BBMP launched its online property tax collection drive on Monday in the midst of heavy public backlash over its revision of property tax zones and rates simultaneously. Although at first there were rumours of the system facing a setback, the BBMP later said 7,800 people had visited its fully updated tax portal ‘Palike Sampanmoola’ already.
While people have been paying property tax online for some years in the city, it has been optional until now. However from now onwards they will no longer be able to pay property tax at ward offices and will have to either pay it online or at 175 branches of Canara Bank, which the BBMP has tied up with for the scheme. New software has been introduced to make the process faster and easier for the large number of people who will now be making their payment online, according to BBMP officers.
As for the process, BBMP’s DC (revenue), Venkatachalapathy said it involved three steps. “On logging onto the website, property owners must select the Base Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS) and enter their application or PID number. Once this is done their property details will appear, enabling them to make the payment or necessary changes to their account,” he explained, however, stressing that basic details of the property could not be edited online and only personal details like mobile number and postal address could be changed.
The BBMP has deputed revenue officers, assistant revenue officers and others at its help centres and local revenue offices to assist property owners in using the online process. Also, people will be able to take the help of revenue staff in ward offices to generate challans for property tax to be paid at any of the Canara Bank branches in BBMP Limits.
The bank will meanwhile issue immediate receipts only if payment is made in cash, DD or pay orders. But in the case of a cheque, the property owner will to wait until it is realised, to get one. Besides Canara Bank, people may soon be able to pay their property tax at BengaluruOne centres as well, as the BBMP is in talks with it currently and expects to make an announcement shortly.
The good news is despite the revision of zones, people are unlikely to find a drastic change in their zones “Earlier, if the property was in F zone and its tax was paid accordingly, it will now be in E zone. Similarly, properties in D zone will now come under C zone. There will be no drastic jump from F to D zone,” Mr Venkatachalapathy said. But suppose a property has slid from a higher zone to a lower one, it will have to be retained in the zonal classification of its base year application. For instance, if the property was in zone D in the base year application and has now slid to zone E, it will have to remain in zone D,” the officer explained.
Zones
The area under BBMP jurisdiction has been classified into six zones based on their guidance value. The zone classification is posted on the BBMP website www.bbmp.gov.in and hhtp://bbmptax.karnataka.gov.in
How drastic will be the hike in property tax due to zone revision?
Property tax , which has been revised for the first time in the city since 2008-2009, will go up, but to ensure that the taxpayer is not affected greatly the zones have not been drastically changed.
Will open verandahs or porticos of a residential house where cars are parked, be included ?
Open spaces like verandahs or porticos of residential building used for car parking are excluded from the built-up area.
If a building is being re-built, on what basis will the property tax be paid?
If the building is demolished and whether or not the construction has begun, tax will have to be paid on the vacant land.
Less than 60% property owners pay their taxes
That there is huge tax evasion in the city is common knowledge. While there are over 27 lakh buildings (both commercial and private) in Bengaluru, only 16 lakh come under the tax net, which means that less than 60 per cent of property owners in Bengaluru are paying their tax as they lawfully should. Some believe those paying the tax could even be as low as 45 per cent.
Should the BBMP make the effort to collect the tax in full, it could earn revenue of Rs 5,000 crore as against the meagre Rs 2,000 crore it earns today they note.
“Large buildings, especially the commercial ones, don’t take the self-assessment route and prefer assessment by the authorities. This gives room for corruption and a long legal battle begins over the assessment by design. It is therefore imperative that a rule be introduced to make it mandatory for the owners/builders to deposit at least 75 per cent of the assessed value in an Escrow Account till the case is disposed off,” says civic activist, D.S Rajashekara, ruing that the BBMP is also losing out in huge revenue from hoardings.
“Although hoardings have been installed in over 2,000 of its properties in prime locations across the city, the rentals are abominably low as the agreements were entered into long time ago and have not been revised since,” he explains.
The solution, he believes, is to identifying identify all properties owned by the BBMP and publish them on its website to place them constant public gaze. “The BBMP is capable of generating at least Rs 2,300 crore through leasing out advertisement hoardings, but it is making hardly anything,” he regrets.
Chaos reigns supreme on Day 1
On the first day of property tax payment, it was total chaos at various BBMP revenue offices and Canara Bank branches as citizens and bank officials were ill-prepared. While many residents complained that the online portal ‘Palike Sampanmoola’ faced a technical glitch till 12 noon on Monday, many who gathered at the BBMP ward offices were sent back. A BBMP official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Hundreds of citizens gathered outside the 260 Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO) offices and designated Canara Bank branches which collect tax. Since it was the first day, people were not aware that they had to take a printout of the challan before paying the tax at the bank. Instead, they directly stood in queues to pay the tax. The banks had to send them back.”
Though the BBMP had announced that citizens could pay the tax at Canara Bank, not many branches were equipped to collect the taxes, another official said. “Even the citizens who downloaded the challan and visited the banks with filled forms had to return without paying the taxes as some of the bank officials were not aware of the process. They asked the residents to come on Tuesday,” the official said.
