BBMP unlikely to reach property tax collection target

Despite drastically improving its property tax collection this year, the BBMP is unlikely to achieve its intended target.

With a month-and-a-half to wrap up collections for this financial year, the civic body has achieved a mere 78% of the intended target. Collections stood at Rs 2,044 crore as on February 7, while the BBMP has set Rs 2,600 crore as the target.

Ruling party leader in BBMP M Shivaraju told a press conference that the International Credit Rating Agency (ICRA) has given Bengaluru A minus (A-) rating for the way the city strengthened its financial system.

"We've scaled from the C Plus (C+) rating last year," he pointed out, adding that the improvement was possible since the BBMP reclaimed some of its mortgaged properties such as the Malleshwaram market. In 2016-17, the BBMP achieved 93.74% of its intended property tax collections, getting Rs 2,156 crore against Rs 2,300 crore.