Only 60 pc property tax collected in BBMP east zone

Transport and District In-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Monday ordered the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to issue show cause notices to 12 Assistant Revenue Officers (AROs) for not collecting property tax from the east zone regularly.

Reddy, who chaired a meeting to review revenue collection, was furious with AROs of the east zone. He made them stand on their feet and demanded an explanation for their “failure” to generate revenue. The minister was angry that 40 per cent of the property tax in the east zone was yet to collected.

The target was Rs 468 crore, but only Rs 287 crore have been collected, he pointed out.
He directed the officers to submit compliance reports about tax collection in the next meeting on January 2. They should also explain the reasons for their “inefficiency”, he said.
BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana and Mayor B S Satyanarayana also took the officers to task for their inability to collect the property tax.

“During the last three months, the officers were repeatedly told to collect the tax regularly but not a single person took the instruction seriously. From now on, each one of you (AROs) should collect property tax from 25 houses everyday,” said the mayor.

The officers have been instructed to collect the remaining amount of Rs 181 crore within a month.

Other decisions taken at the meeting include the issuance of Property Identification (PID) numbers to the upcoming new 18,500 properties in the east zone within a month, revaluation of properties built on more than 3,000 sq ft and issuance of notices to property owners who owe more than Rs 50,000.