Urban News

The Deccan Herald  16.11.2010

Property tax details to go online

Bangalore, Nov 15, DHNS

The details pertaining to payment of property details could go online if the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has its way.

In its attempt to introduce transparency in the property tax payment system, the BBMP has initiated talks with service providers to host the details online. This would also enable the BBMP to find out any violations including short payment of the tax under the Self Assessment Scheme.

 “We are planning this system to ensure that the BBMP is alerted even by common man of any loss being suffered due to false declaration of the property tax,” said a source. The system enables the neighbours to bring forth any violation by the neighbours. The informers’ identity will be kept confidential. The Unique Identification Number that will be allotted to all the properties will also be displayed. It is estimated that there are about 14 lakh properties in the Palike jurisdiction.   

Steady decline

The attempts of the Palike to mop up funds through property tax collection have come a cropper. According to the members of Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance the revenue from property tax stood at Rs 846 crore for the year 2010-11 as against the target of Rs 1,500 crore. The Palike has witnessed a steady decline in property tax collection.
While it raked up Rs 727 cr in August, the collection stood at Rs 112 crore over the last three months.

With the state government asking the Palike not to expect any assistance and Akrama-Sakrama scheme yet to get on way, the cash-strapped civic agency is finding it difficult to mobilise resources. “We are facing huge losses as there are allegations that Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO) are corrupt. Citizens have complained that some AROs have threatened with violations and demanded bribe,” said a Standing Committee member.

The Deccan Chronicle  16.11.2010

Hyderabad, Nov. 15: The GHMC has proposed to levy tax on 40 different trades including coffee shops, hostels and private swimming pools. Officials have identified 40 trades that will be included in the trade licence list from the ensuing financial year.

The GHMC first needs a clearance from the elected body of corporators. The corporators have asked the officials to see whether GHMC can seek a share in Value Added Tax from the state government. The corporation hopes to raise an additional `20 crore.

The officials included the proposal in the draft budget estimates of GHMC for 2011-2012. These estimates were discussed at length by the Standing Committee of corporators on Monday.

The committee decided to meet again on Tuesday to take a final call on adding new trades in the trade licence bracket and other proposals.

In the draft estimates of the budget, it has also been proposed to enhance garbage collection fee from commercial establishments and enhance fee for film and television shootings in GHMC’s parks and other properties.

Compared to the current financial year budget, there is an increase of 22.30 per cent in the draft budget estimates for 2011-2012 . The proposed outlay for 2011-12 is `3,226.22 crore against an outlay of `2,637.77 crore for 2010-11.

The total revenue income has been pegged at `1,631.62 crore while revenue expenditure is expected to be `1,239.46 crore, there by making it a surplus budget of `392.16 crore. The budget allocated for poverty alleviation is `171.40 crore.

Elsewhere, the mayor, Ms Kartika Reddy, urged the state government to extend the date for the disposal of pending applications under the Building Penalisation Scheme up to March 31, 2011. The last date for the disposing off BPS applications was November 15.

The mayor wrote a letter to the municipal administration minister, Mr Anam Ramnarayan Reddy, that over 40,000 BPS applications were still pending clearance with the GHMC even as the BPS scheme came to an end on Monday.

She said the corporation will stand to raise nearly `200 crore more by clearing these 40,000 applications if it gets more time.