BBMP can now collect conversion fee

The State Cabinet last week approved a proposal empowering the BBMP to collect conversion and improvement charges from people owning property on land in and around the City hitherto outside the purview of the civic body and to give them permanent khatas.

Besides, a bill to amend the Karnataka Land Revenue (KLR) Act, 1964, is also expected to be introduced in the on-going Assembly session for passage. A change in the existing law will help citizens to pay the conversion fee and regularise their residential properties on revenue land by September 2012.

A previous amendment to the Act had given owners of property on revenue land a narrow window of opportunity of only a year (from September 2009 to September 2010) to pay up the conversion charges.

These charges are paid by people who seek to regularise their revenue plots but lack proper approval from competent authorities like the BDA, Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA) and Bangalore International Airport Area Planning Authority (BIAAPA).

After hectic lobbying by the Palike top brass, including Commissioner Siddaiah and the ruling BJP, the Cabinet is learnt to have approved the BBMP proposal and agreed to the suggestion for transferring the power to collect conversion fee from the deputy commissioners to the civic body’s zonal commissioners and assistant revenue officers (AROs).

With this, the BMMP will now have the opportunity to collect the conversion charges and deposit it with the government, while the betterment charges will be levied for the facilities it gives to the civic body’s coffers. The benefit that citizens will enjoy is they will not have to wait for an Akrama-Sakrama programme to have their land converted. But under the new provision, building bylaw violations will not be regularised.

Officials of the BBMP’s revenue department claim that the deputy commissioner (DC) conversion fee collection and the subsequent betterment charges will earn the Palike revenue in excess of Rs 1,500 crore. “This will, in all likelihood, reduce the financial crisis for the BBMP,” an official said.

Sources said that it is the betterment charges which will fetch the BBMP the much-needed revenue “as they can be levied only on DC-converted revenue sites”. Officials estimate that the BBMP's losses ran into crores because the revenue pockets were extended civic amenities but were unable to collect betterment charges since there was a lack of provisions under the KLR Act.

There are nearly 400 revenue layouts which have been extended civic services, including garbage collection, roads and storm water drain (SWD) facilities by the Palike.