Bengaluru civic body to go after property tax evaders
BBMP, in its bid to increase tax collections and to meet the target of Rs 2,900 crore
Bengaluru: Property tax defaulters beware. The BBMP, in its bid to increase tax collections and to meet the target of Rs 2,900 crore set by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, will go after defaulters and has set a deadline of December 15 to pay the arrears.
BBMP Tax and Finance Committee Chairman V. Anand and Mayor N. Shanthakumari on Tuesday visited some of the big defaulters and demanded that they pay the arrears immediately.
The threat worked and the Bagmane Tech Park, belonging to Bagmane Developers Pvt. Ltd, paid a cheque of Rs 11.46 crore to the BBMP on the spot. The amount was given in three cheques to Ms Shanthakumari.
The BBMP has warned that if the defaulters fail to pay the dues by December 15, it will initiate legal action. The Palike has listed nearly 30 properties which owe more than Rs 1 crore to the BBMP. Some of these property owners have not paid taxes since 2008-09 and have also failed to respond to notices issued by the Palike, sources said.
Some property owners are misusing provisions of the Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS) by declaring wrong information on the built-up area to evade tax. Tax inspectors have been given a target of 20 houses per ward per month to revalidate SAS declarations. If the defaulters fail to pay the dues despite the notice, the BBMP can seize movable properties and auction them to recover the monies, the sources said.
Although property declaration is through SAS, the civic body has a provision to revalidate around 20 per cent of the properties and initiate action against defaulters. Mahadevapura zone tops the list of defaulters with arrears running up to Rs 71.64 crore. The zone houses a large number of IT properties, they said. Some of the prestigious hospitals, industries, IT company buildings and colleges too are in the list of defaulters.