In an age where there is no premium on honesty, where the rich hire a battery of lawyers and accountants for tax-dodging, Bangaloreans have earned a reputation for themselves. As per the statistics of Central Board of Direct Taxes, Bangalore stands second after Mumbai in terms of total collection of personal income tax at Rs 11,500 crore. This year Bangalore has surpassed Delhi which figures third at Rs 10,400 crore. In economic parameter, this surely denotes growth of the City despite several impediments. 

So does that mean Bangalore is home to more rich people than Delhi? “Definitely not,” averred Dr Devi Shetty, noted cardiologist. “Salaried-class people stay in Bangalore. Delhi has more moneyed class. It’s just that people in Bangalore are honest in paying tax.” 

However, not every person in the City is shelling out his or her own share of tax. Money-bags who have unaccounted wealth cling on to them without paying the exchequer.

‘’Twenty per cent people end up paying 80 per cent tax,’’ said management consultant Harish Bijoor. In Bijoor’s opinion IT Products Company, IT services, ITES, biotechnology, retail, real estate are the top six professions that form the tax paying segment of the City.

‘’Bangalore does not have a parallel or grey economy like Delhi or Mumbai where the real rich actually get away without paying the tax. Bangaloreans generally have an attitude for peace of mind and that’s the reason they pay their taxes honestly.’’

According to Mohandas Pai, Director and Head HR of Infosys, IT employees followed by professionals like lawyers, doctors, architects and then the individual businessmen fall into the individual tax payer category.  ‘’Bangalore has a very thick layer of middle class and professionals who are in the higher income bracket and have good purchasing power.’’

But is the City and its law abiding citizens getting their due in terms of infrastructure and basic facilities? The new RBI report on Municipal Finances in India, as indexed in the recent Budget speech of BBMP, says that municipal finances of Bangalore rank very low. This is because there is no correlation of income tax with the per capita municipal tax. Various political parties are already saying that they would rather concentrate on rural areas than Bangalore. ``There is a disparity in tax collection and revenue application in our system,’’ feels Bijoor. Moreover, he feels there’s ‘Robinhoodisation,’ as he prefers to call it, of taxes in India.

It’s the city of dichotomy. On one hand, there are frequent Lokayukta raids on government officials where wealth disproportionate to known income is discovered while on the other is the salaried-class in private sector which swears by the virtue of tax compliance.