Cash-strapped BBMP will soon launch a street campaign to collect property taxes from major defaulters.

According to Mayor B S Sathyanarayana, this drive is expected to increase tax collection by `1,000 crore.

He
said a team of officials of BBMP and Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force
and councillors, will go to the streets where more tax defaulters are
present.

Sathyanarayana said this drive aims to collect taxes from
major defaulters like IT-BT companies and other commercial
establishments. The team will personally visit buildings and assess
taxes.

“The team will also crosscheck the built-up area and
compare it with the data declared by the owners under the Self
Assessment Scheme (SAS). If any difference is found, notice will be
issued to collect the remaining amount,” he said. He added that this
drive is expected to be conducted at zonal level.

Members of
BBMP’s Taxation and Finance Committee recently visited the Wipro campus
in Sarjapur to collect dues of `16.47 crore. But Wipro authorities
refused to pay. In turn, they released a note claiming that it was an
illegal attempt by the civic authorities to collect money from them.

Irked
by this, councillors, cutting across party lines, raised their voice
against the company. Following this, the civic body now proposes to
conduct street campaigning to collect property taxes from major
defaulters.

Mayor to Write to State Govt

According to
Sathyanarayana, BBMP revenue officials are given additional work like
ration card survey, electoral work and other non-revenue related works.

“As
they are given additional works, they are not able to concentrate on
tax collection. I shall write to the State government soon, requesting
them not to give other works to revenue officials,” he said.

A
senior BBMP official said, at present, there were more than 600 officers
working in the Revenue Department including tax inspectors and revenue
officers.

“Around 25 to 30 per cent people pay their taxes under
SAS. With this, existing staff are sufficient to collect taxes. But
given additional tasks, these officials are not able to collect taxes,”
sources said.