BENGALURU: To use a monsoon analogy, it's raining money for the BBMP. Till a while ago, it was wading neck-deep in debt and had even pledged its precious jewels — heritage value buildings.
But now the mood is upbeat. In the aftermath of BBMP winning cases in the high court based on property tax payment, the civic body is confident of getting a substantial income.
It has plans to set up an exclusive account with the money earned from defaulters after their legal battle.
This money will be used to release the pledged properties and save BBMP’s valuable assets.
Following the court order recently, Manyata tech park promoters paid Rs 54 crore and are required to cough up Rs 200 more.
Under the Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) of property tax, several high value assessment buildings have submitted incorrect declarations and deceived the BBMP while paying the actual tax. For instance, Manyata tech park promoters were paying '8 per sq. feet instead of '10 per sq. feet. This duplicity was unearthed by the BBMP standing committee led by its chairman M. Shivaraju. After the directive from the court, the tech park has paid '54 crore out of '272 crore.
The committee has already announced a list of 10 other major companies which have deceived BBMP in a similar manner over property tax. The court order will be the precedent to go ahead and get the actual property tax from them, said Mr. Shivaraju.
The money earned will be secured in a separate account and utilized for getting the mortgaged property released from financial institutions. It may be recalled that the BBMP had mortgaged some of the properties like Public Utility Building, KR Market and Dasappa hospital, to service the loans.
Already, Malleswaram Market and Rajajinagar complex have been released. '140 crore has been paid and the remaining '40 crore will be paid to release Johnson Market, said Mr. Shivaraju.
In the wake of BBMP cracking the whip on those companies which have made erroneous declarations, the big brass of these companies have been urging the BBMP revenue authorities to survey and fix the tax that they are liable to pay.
Property tax: Glitches continue
Though the citizens of Bengaluru just have one day to avail five per cent rebate on property tax, some of the technical glitches still persist and they are unable to avail the benefit. Banks which have been linked by the BBMP to pay the property tax are likely to see huge rush to avail the rebate. Those who pay the property tax from July should pay a penalty of 2 per cent per month on the property tax payable.
Rs 75 crore loss: BBMP revenue authorities claimed that the civic body has suffered a loss of Rs 75 crore due to the extension of rebate by two months. Usually, the rebate is applicable for the first month of the financial year i.e., April. Later, it was extended till the end of May and subsequently till June end. Who is to be blamed for the extension and loss of revenue is the question. The rebate was extended owing to the technical glitches in the online property tax payment.
