Consumer court orders refund of property tax penalty to Nagarbhavi resident

Bengaluru: In a win for a Nagarbhavi resident, the Bangalore Urban 2nd Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered the BBMP's revenue department to refund Rs 942.56 penalty unfairly levied on his property tax in 2021.

Gopinatha HS brought the case to the consumer court in May 2023, contesting the penalty and interest charged on his tax bill.

In July 2021, a BBMP tax collector handed Gopinatha a notice dated February 23, 2021, asking him to pay the past four years' differential tax amount of Rs 471.28 and a penalty of Rs 942.56, amounting to a total of Rs 1,413.84. Adding insult to injury, the tax collector clicked photos of the complainant and his wife as proof of having delivered the notice without their consent.

That month end, Gopinatha paid the entire dues, including the penalty, but later sought a refund after it turned out that the penalty was a result of technical glitches on the BBMP website, misclassifying tax zones after 2016 and triggering inaccurate penalty calculations.

Subsequently, in September 2023, the state government waived penalty charges for affected property owners.

The consumer court cited the state government's notification issued in September 2023, which waived the penalties but permitted officials to collect only the differential amount and interest. The court observed that the BBMP had collected an unfair penalty that was double the amount of property tax due, violating the government's order and committing a deficiency of service.

Favouring the complainant, the court, in an order dated December 20, 2023, directed the BBMP to refund the Rs 942.56 penalty with a monthly interest of 2% from July 13, 2021.

The court also ordered the civic body to pay Rs 1,000 in litigation costs and complete the payments within 30 days.

Penalty notices

In 2021-22, the BBMP issued penalty notices to over 78,000 property owners claiming they had incorrectly assessed the tax value due to wrong zonal classifications.

Though the zonal changes came into effect from 2016, the property owners were not aware of the changes. The BBMP imposed a penalty and interest on the differential tax amounts. In September 2023, the state government eventually waived the penalty.