There is a good chance that the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will fill its coffers by imposing penalties on those who have not paid the appropriate amount as property tax.
The BBMP has formed 385 crack teams, comprising engineers, revenue department officials and other officials, who will survey all properties in the Palike’s jurisdiction to ascertain whether they have been accurately assessed under the self-assessment scheme (SAS), and whether the appropriate amount has been paid in tax. Defaulters will be penalised, and penalty fees have been fixed for the purpose.
Explaining the process, BBMP deputy commissioner (revenue) DL Chandrashekar said that the deadline to complete the verification of properties is November 2010.
By then, the BBMP hopes to bring all properties under the tax net. All 198 wards in the Palike will be surveyed, and GIS maps are being used to identify properties for which taxes have already been paid, and mark out those where taxes have still to be paid. The total number of irregularities will be ascertained a week later, and notices issued to all defaulters.
BBMP statistics show that there are over five lakh properties in the city that the Palike has not surveyed in the last two years. Over the last two months, the BBMP has been verifying each property and checking whether taxes have been paid. Officials are also verifying whether the amount of tax was rightly assessed under the SAS scheme, and whether the records of the Palike match the ground reality.
Sources indicate that there are many cases where the assessment has been done with the intention of reducing the tax amount. A double-storey building, for instance, could be shown as being single-storey, just to reduce the amount charged as tax.
All cases of encroachment and also instances of residential and commercial property being mixed will be noted.
“The Palike needs funds for various projects. We aim to raise some amount through tax collection, and some through various public-private partnerships,” said BBMP commissioner Bharat Lal Meena.
