e-Aasthi portal seeks 'private' details for property tax

A set of questions that were dropped from the property tax form a decade ago have made a comeback in the e-Aasthi portal, which has been rolled out in all wards falling under the BBMP’s east zone.

A property owner availing the facility is expected to upload 42 documents, including details such as type of flooring and the wooden work in the house etc.

Not all are happy with the civic body seeking these “private” details which were withdrawn in the past.

Some of the questions that are a part of the e-Aasthi software are: property index number (PIN), plinth area, built-up area, type of building (commercial, residential etc.,), usage (own, rental), type of roof (RCC, tiled, sheet, hutment, etc.), flooring (tiles, marbles), type of wood used (teak, mahogany etc), photo of the property owner, encumbrance certificate etc. These details also appear on the khata certificate.

A few residents also said the revenue inspectors have also taken note of home accessories such as lights, electrical equipment, sofas etc during the verification.

As the exercise required revenue inspectors to enter the houses, some residents were not comfortable with sharing these details.

“It’s a regressive step,” V Ravichandar, who was a part of the team that designed a self-assessment scheme on property tax, said.

“It will bring in discretionary elements (that were removed) and lead to rent-seeking behaviour. We have a trust-based self-assessment scheme and the BBMP should build on it. It makes sense to link electricity and water meter database to the e-Aasthi software instead of asking type of flooring, materials used etc.”

Deepak R L, Special Commissioner at BBMP’s revenue department, did not respond to calls.

After running a pilot project in three zones, the BBMP had rolled out the e-Aasthi project in its east zone last year. Registering one’s property documents on the portal has become so important that the owner may find it difficult to either sell off the property
or apply for a bank loan without it.

Even obtaining a khata certificate requires him or her to be on the digital platform. The scheme is yet to be rolled out in all wards.

The BBMP had planned to extend the project, which is integrated with Stamps and Registration database and DigiLocker-enabled, to all zones but the implementation is moving at a snail’s speed.

“We are getting 30 to 40 applications on a daily basis but one inspector with the help of data entry operator can cover only 2-3 houses a day. We had requested the head office to come up with a software where the property owners themselves can upload all the documents to simplify the entire exercise,” a revenue inspector of East zone said.

It’s also learnt that the property owners of East zone, who are planning to sell off property, have been sent back from the sub-registrar’s office to first upload the documents on e-Aasthi portal.

To get this done, revenue inspectors have been demanding bribe up to Rs 10,000 while the actual fee is just Rs 125, a senior official said on the condition of anonymity.