Dec. 29: In a major relief to over five lakh site owners
in the city, the BBMP council on Wednesday approved the recommendations
for the amendment of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act.

This enables the site owners to obtain ‘khata’ by paying
an ‘improvement’ fee and conversion fee to the BBMP. Amidst acrimonious
scenes, the ruling BJP also approved the collection of ‘improvement’ or
development fee from the revenue site owners. The opposition Congress
and JD(S) objected to this and demanded that the BJP bring down the
‘improvement’ fee, saying it was exorbitant.

According to the chairman of the BBMP committee on
Taxation and Finance P. N. Sadashiva, if the recommendations are
approved, instead of waiting for the Sakrama scheme, the property owners
could get ‘khata’ for those properties which have been converted for
non-agricultural purposes from the competent authority — deputy
commissioner (urban).

The permanent ‘khata’ will help property owners obtain the
building plan from the BBMP. It will also enable them to avail of loans
from financial institutions for building houses.

The issue of ‘khata’ had been stopped for those layouts
which were formed without land conversion and approval from the
competent planning authorities, like BDA, Bengaluru Metropolitan Region
Development Authority (BMRDA) and Bengaluru International Airport Area
Planning Authority (BIAAPA).

If the amendment comes through, the BBMP could earn
revenue to the tune of at least Rs 500 crore. The amendment will help
the BBMP to collect both conversion fee and ‘betterment’ fee. However,
the BBMP is expected to remit the conversion fee to the government
through the deputy commission (urban), which is the competent authority
for land conversion.

The ‘betterment’ fee would be collected from all the
property owners for providing them with civic amenities like roads,
drains and sanitary connections. But all this does not necessarily mean
that their property is regularised, clarified Mr Sadashiva.

Those who pay the improvement fee, will be given ‘B khata,’ which helps the BBMP to collect property tax, he said.