Beggary Cess and overdue benefits

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)’s one-time-settlement scheme for property tax defaulters came to an end yesterday. BBMP officials are gearing up to impose hefty penalties, with interest, on continuing defaulters to realise the arrears that allegedly run into hundreds of crores of rupees. But who will courageously act against the BBMP, other urban local bodies (ULBs) and panchayats across Karnataka, for defaulting on the disbursement of Beggary Cess they collect from us every year?

Many of us are contemptuous towards the destitute men, women, and children we chance upon on the road, outside temples and mosques, or at the bus stand or railway station, seeking alms for survival. Yet, how many of us know that these local authorities collect Beggary Cess at 3% of the value of the property tax we pay, under a special law? After deducting 10% for the administrative costs, they are required to hand over the balance amount to the Central Relief Fund administered by a committee set up by the Social Welfare Department. The Fund created under the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 (KPBA) is used to finance 14 Nirasthitara Parihara Kendras (destitute relief centres) across the state for rehabilitating people ‘rescued’ from begging.

Over the years, ULBs, and panchayats have accumulated Beggary Cess worth crores of rupees despite the High Court’s explicit directions for strict compliance in two PILs (filed in 2007 and 2020), a Legislative Committee’s recommendations, and at least one order of the Karnataka Lokayukta reminding them of their statutory obligation to pay up. The KPBA permits the realisation of these unpaid dues as if they are arrears of land revenue (their properties may be confiscated and auctioned off), but who will bell the cat?

As a citizen who started paying property tax only recently, I decided to probe this issue in July 2024. The Social Welfare Department transferred my RTI application to the Central Relief Committee (CRC) established under the Act. The CRC returned the application saying I should file separate requests for the seven queries I had listed. This patent misapplication of the Karnataka RTI Rules which impose subject matter restriction on RTIs is a story for another day.

So, I filed seven separate requests with the CRC. After encountering radio silence for 30 days, I filed seven first appeals. The CRC woke up in November and sent some data and documents, free of cost. The first shocking discovery is that a governmental committee to administer the Fund was set up only a day before my RTI application landed on the Social Welfare Department’s desk i.e. 48 years after the Act had been operationalised! Is late, truly better than never?

The second shock was from the DCB (demand, collection, balance) data of beggary cess. Apparently, the 6,200+ panchayats at the village, taluka and district level collected at least Rs 725 crore as Beggary Cess between 2019 and 2024 but had transferred only Rs 49.4 crore to the Fund! The 310 ULBs across the state are said to have collected Rs 137 crore but had transferred only Rs 104 crore during the same period. The CRC also sent me copies of reminders issued to the local authorities since 2012, not only demanding payment of the cess funds but also submission of DCB data in specified formats. Last September, the BBMP coughed up Rs 50 crore, thanks to the PIL pressure.

But two things remain sarkari secrets. Have the local authorities paid up, with full arrears from the previous years? Second, why has the government not taken strict action against the defaulting authorities, till date, despite the High Court reminding it about its statutory powers to do so?

In 2013, a government-commissioned ‘Technology-based Beggars Head Count Survey’ identified 22,038 destitutes across the state. Of these, 56.9% were men, 42.2% women and about 1% transgenders; 23% of them were aged 60 years and above, while 5% were less than 16 and 39% in the 46-60 age bracket. It is high time a fresh survey is conducted to scope the current status of begging in Karnataka. The 14 Nirasthitara Parihara Kendras house only 3,800 inmates. Clearly, the objectives of the Act are not being fulfilled adequately. A cost-benefit analysis is also required. In 2023-24, the CRC apparently incurred a total expenditure of Rs 131.25 crore. This would amount to a notional per capita expenditure of Rs 3.44 lakh on the inmates. Is the Beggary Cess truly benefitting the destitutes or is it feeding bureaucratic and infrastructure maintenance costs? We, the citizen-taxpayers, have the right to know and the government has the duty to inform.