The Hindu                     05.04.2013

Underreporting hits property tax dues

Staff Reporter

BBMP begins survey of large campuses, apartment complexes, tech parks, malls.

Serious about recovering property tax dues, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is already surveying large campuses, including apartment complexes, IT companies, business parks, hospitals, malls and clubs.

On survey and verification, the BBMP officials have found huge differences in tax paid under Self Assessment Scheme (SAS) and the actual tax amount, given the built-up area. According to a press release, just from two properties — Golf Links in Challaghatta and Vrindavan Tech Village in Mahadevapura — the tax dues amount to around Rs. 64 crore.

The release said that the built-up area of Golf Link is 76.8 lakh sq ft, while the built-up area declared under SAS was only 49.97 lakh sq ft. The difference is around 26.83 lakh sq ft and each year, the BBMP was being cheated of Rs. 6.84 lakh property tax. The tax dues from this property, including penalty from 2008-09 to 2012-13, adds up to Rs. 34.24 crore.

Similarly, while the built-up area of Vrindavan Tech Village declared under SAS is 11.35 lakh sq ft, on physical verification, the BBMP found that it was actually 28.16 lakh sq ft. The dues from this property amount to Rs. 29.36 crore, including penalties.

BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah said that these tax dues from just the major campuses in the city amount to a whopping Rs. 576 crore. He said that since the SAS tax system was introduced in 2008-09, the BBMP had not taken up verification of property tax of any property in the city. “As per the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, the BBMP could have taken up verification of 10 per cent of properties. However, even two or three per cent has not been achieved,” he said.

He also said that the BBMP would sign a memorandum of understanding with the Visvesvaraya Technological University on April 6 (Saturday) to utilise the services of the architecture students for the verification of the high-value properties in the city.

Other than this, the BBMP will also be integrating the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company’s RR numbers and Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board’s water meter numbers with the unique property identity (PID) numbers. Over 16 lakh properties have been captured by the geographical information system and given unique PID.