Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has identified 20,000 property owners who have paid less property taxes by registering their properties under the residential category, even though they were being put to commercial use. The discrepancies were identified after BBMP matched its data with the Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) bills. It was observed that while the property owners had obtained commercial connections from BESCOM, they were making property tax payments under the residential slabs.
According to special commissioner of the BBMP’s finance department, Jayaram Raipura, BBMP took a few months to verify property claims in the BBMP east, west and south zones. It has to collect Rs 300 crore in property tax from the tax defaulters. These properties will be geo-tagged and details will be entered in the system so that property taxes can be collected from them annually. The tax defaulters made false declarations under the self-assessment scheme to evade paying higher taxes. Notices have been issued to them for the revision of the tax amount.
See also: BBMP suffers Rs 131 crore loss; 8,000 commercial use properties paying tax under residential slab
According to BBMP officials, the verification process was started in April in Jakkasandra and HSR wards in Bengaluru as a pilot run. If the discrepancy was noted during the verification process, they would physically verify and geo-tag the properties along with photos and videos so that taxes can be collected from these defaulters next year. They have identified owners who have declared their properties as vacant land so that they could pay lesser taxes.
Bengaluru corporation has set a target for collection of Rs 3,500 crore in property tax by the end of the financial year. As per officials, the collection stood at nearly Rs 2,600 crore.
See also: All about BBMP Property Tax Calculator in Bangalore
