A day after the High Court pulled up the BBMP for using ‘naming and
shaming’ tactics in its property tax collection drive, Mayor B S
Sathyanarayana on Friday took an indirect dig at big companies for not
paying taxes.

He was speaking at a session titled ‘Challenges of
Governing Bangalore City’ during the Civic Leadership Incubator
Programme (B.CLIP) organised by the Bangalore Political Action Committee
(B.PAC). He alleged that it was the educated classes who were not
paying taxes and also shifted the blame to the Palike when officials
went to collect dues.

“Industries that make profits of `5 crore
and above have to pay two per cent of it to the local municipal
corporation. But many IT-BT companies here pay all their taxes to the
State government. If they pay us, we will get at least `250 crore, which
can be used for development works,” he said.

Referring to other
civic issues, the Mayor noted the need for elected representatives  to
be in touch with the public. “We sat in the opposition in the BBMP
Council for many years. It is easy to give suggestions, but we face
actual problems when we are governing,” he said. Sathyanarayana said
there were more than 16 lakh properties in Bangalore of which only 9.8
lakh came under the tax net. He said the Palike was unable to identify
defaulters as the revenue officers were burdened with many other non-tax
related tasks.

B.PAC Training

B.PAC on
Friday commenced its civic leadership training programme for the first
batch of 66 candidates. The candidates are from 20 Assembly
constituencies and diverse political affiliations. 

The B.CLIP
course will include a mix of classroom training for three months and
field work alongside city officials for five months. The candidates will
assist in the creation of a ward manifesto as well as an action plan.