The Hindu               13.06.2013

BBMP to develop software to check revenue leakage

One of the last few important decisions that the
previous Commissioner Siddaiah took towards improving resource
mobilisation of the financially ailing Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara
Palike (BBMP) is to integrate the database of trade licences, properties
and advertisements, specifically shop advertisements.

According
to sources within the BBMP, Mr. Siddaiah, when in office, directed the
civic authority’s IT department to develop a software that integrates
the database. The Chief Health Officer, whose office issues trade
licences, and the Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) have been instructed to
work with the IT department.

Ad taxes

The
software will be dependent on the GIS (geographical information system)
data. With GIS, the BBMP officials will be able to ascertain if any
name board that is displayed outside shops is bigger than the specified
size (6 ft x 4 ft). “If it is bigger, the BBMP will issue demand notices
and collect advertisement tax from these commercial establishments,” an
official said.

BBMP has captured all properties in
the city through GIS and even issued the property identity (PID) number.
By linking trade licence with the PID, the BBMP hopes to detect the
property owners who have made false declarations under Self-Assessment
Scheme and underreported their tax.

“Some owners
would have declared their properties are being used for residential
purposes, even though they may be used for commercial purposes. Through
GIS and physical verification, we can detect such cases, collect the
dues to BBMP from them by issuing demand notices and updating the
database,” the source said.

Just a fourth

The BBMP has data from Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) about the number of commercial establishments.

The
civic authority, which has been taking up drives to increase the number
of trade licences, has issued 50,000 licences. “The BBMP’s target is to
collect Rs. 200 crore by issuing two lakh trade licences. We are
getting only Rs. 50 crore from trade licences,” a revenue official told
The Hindu
on condition of anonymity.

With revenue mobilisation
being crucial to the BBMP, it is now up to the new Commissioner to take
this forward and check revenue leakage.