JOIN US8,000 properties in commercial use pay tax under residential slab
The BBMP has identified 8,906 properties for paying property tax in the residential slab despite being in commercial use.
The discrepancy came to light when the civic body cross-verified its data with Bescom. The exercise revealed property tax default to the tune of Rs 131 crore.
As part of the first-of-its-kind initiative, a Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in-house team developed an algorithm to detect owners who failed to share accurate description of their properties during the Self-Assessment Scheme (SAS).
During verification, the team flagged 24,397 properties that took a commercial power connection from Bescom but were paying property tax under the residential slab.
Following online verification, revenue inspectors were tasked with physical verification of all 24,397 geo-tagged properties.
The second round of verification found 12,003 converted their residential properties for commercial activities. This also meant these property owners defaulted property tax of Rs 131 crore by wrongly or fraudulently entering false description of their properties.
Deepak R L, special commissioner of the BBMP’s revenue department, said the civic body will take the help of three tahsildars, who have already been deputed to the BBMP, to assess the property tax of 12,003 properties.
“The tahsildars along with revenue officials will also visit properties that have raised objections to our verification by undertaking one more round of verification,” he said.
The data-sharing agreement between the BBMP and Bescom was seen as a major step towards increasing the property tax collection, which currently stands at Rs 2,600 crore. The BBMP has set a target of collecting Rs 3,500 crore by the end of this financial year. As compared to other metropolitan cities, property tax collection in Bengaluru is much lower due to rampant corruption.