100% penalty applies for chronic property tax defaulters: BBMP

Bengaluru: Stating that the 100% penalty applies only to chronic property tax defaulters who do not pay tax for two consecutive years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Friday clarified that it will not charge such penalty for defaulting the tax for a day or one full year. 

“Of the 20 lakh properties, only up to 18 lakh properties pay the property tax. The rest are chronic defaulters. By letting them off, we do gross injustice to a honest tax payer. It’s the prescribed duty of BBMP to recover property tax from such chronic defaulters as per law,” a senior BBMP official said.  

The response comes after a few MLAs slammed the BBMP during the assembly session, linking the BBMP’s tax collection system to micro-finance firms who slap ‘meter baddi’ (exorbitant interest rate) on defaulters. 

The BBMP said the penalty of 100% kicks in only after about two years of non-payment. Such a penalty, for instance, does not apply for non-payment of 2024-25 property tax on April 1, 2025. The 100% penalty, however, applies on April 2026 if the tax still remains unpaid. 

“During the entire period of 2025-26 the defaulter will be charged only a simple interest of 15%, and 100% penalty does not apply,” the BBMP said.