The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has identified 8,906 properties for paying property tax in the residential slab despite being in commercial use. The discrepancy was noticed when the municipal authority cross-verified its data with BESCOM. The exercise undertaken by the civic body revealed property tax default of Rs 131 crore.
See also: BESCOM Bill Payment Online – Complaints & Helpline number
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a BBMP in-house team developed an algorithm to identify owners who failed to share accurate description of their properties during the Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS).
During the verification, the BBMP team flagged as many as 24,397 properties that obtained a commercial power connection from BESCOM but were making property tax payments under the residential category.
Following an online verification, revenue inspectors were assigned to undertake physical verification of all 24,397 geo-tagged properties. In the second round of verification, it was found that 12,003 converted their residential properties for commercial activities. This also implied the owners of these properties defaulted property tax worth Rs 131 crore by incorrectly or fraudulently entering false description of the properties.
Special commissioner of the BBMP’s revenue department, Deepak R L, said the authority will take the help of three tahsildars to assess the property tax of the 12,003 properties. He said that the tahsildars, who have already been deputed to the BBMP, along with revenue officials will visit properties that have raised objections to the verification by undertaking one more round of verification.
The data-sharing agreement between the BBMP and BESCOM was seen as a major step towards increasing the property tax collection that stands at Rs 2,600 crore at present. The BBMP aims to collect Rs 3,500 crore by the end of this financial year. Property tax collection in Bengaluru is lower as compared to other metropolitan cities due to rampant corruption.
See also: BBMP property tax: How to pay property tax in Bangalore and all about BBMP property tax calculator
