The Hindu        27.03.2017  

Soon, your property will have a 10-digit geo-referenced number

It will replace the existing PIDs; it can effectively act as your address too

By this year-end, your property will have a 10-digit unique number.
This unique number, which will be geo-referenced with the latitude and
longitude information of the property, can effectively act as your
address too. This number will replace your existing Property
Identification (PID) number, which is not geo-referenced.

The
civic body will start issuing these unique numbers soon after its
GIS-enabled Property Tax Information System is mounted on the Bhuvan
platform of Indian Space Research Organisation, work on which will begin
from April 1, said M.K. Gunashekhar, chairman, standing committee on
taxation and finance, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. The BBMP’s
budget had a mention of the project.

Unscientific numbering

The
PID system is in a mess owing to unscientific numbering being followed,
said a senior BBMP official. The PID system includes the ward number,
street number and door number of the property, all of which can often
change. Ward delimitation exercise will render all existing PIDs
erroneous, leading to issuing of new PIDs.

There are already two
sets of PIDs — those issued before and after 2008, when the BBMP was
formed. Moreover, the PID database is unlinked to the GIS database,
khata, plan sanction, Bescom or BWSSB databases.

Assigning new
numbers was recommended by the BBMP Restructuring Committee. The
10-digit system will give scope for assigning numbers to 100 lakh
properties, a far cry from today’s estimated 25 lakh properties in the
city.

“In Singapore, the geo-referenced unique property number
acts as your address. For instance, you can provide the number of your
destination to a cab driver who will track it on the map. The unique
number can enable this in Bengaluru too,” said V. Ravichandar, member of
the committee.

The 10-digit
system will be error-proof and the system would not accept a wrong PID
which may lead to tax payment to another account. The 10th digit will be
derived through an algorithm applied on the first nine digits. Thus a
wrong number in the 10th digit, will immediately flag an error, sources
said.

Tax compliance

A geo-referenced PID that is
integrated with other datasets of the properties such as ownership and
encumbarance documents, khata, plan approval, tax receipts, utility
services, is expected to lead to increased tax compliance in the city,
said Mr. Ravichandar.

The recent GIS mapping has recognised around
19 lakh properties, of which only 16 lakh to 17 lakh properties have
been in the tax net, indicating that the city has not been leveraging
its potential tax base.

“Technology will help us cross-verify self-assessment by property owners and detect under-reporting,” Mr. Gunashekhar said.