The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is offering one last chance to citizens and corporate entities that have under-declared their property details using the Self-Assessment Scheme. It has given a window of one month, from December 14 to January 13, during which time all property can correct any mistakes in the self assessment done for 2016-17 and pay the difference in property tax without attracting any penalty.
After January 13, BBMP will assess the properties at random and book cases wherever discrepancies are found.
Redeclaration and payment of property tax can be made on the civic body’s website. This is the first such provision BBMP has made for rectifying property tax self-assessment mid-year. “We have decided to start a GIS-based total station survey of properties, during which any discrepancies will be penalised. Before that we want to give [them] one last chance to rectify their entries voluntarily. No such chance will be given later,” said M.K. Gunasekhar, chairman of the Taxation and Finance Standing Committee, BBMP.
The total station survey will first begin with 77 tech parks, 51 shopping malls, 4,834 industrial units and 4,406 apartments in the city, using GIS-enabled Property Tax Information System (GEPTIS), which Mr. Gunasekhar hopes will reveal multiple under-declared properties and increase the civic body’s revenue.
Most property tax disputes involve differences in assessment of properties by owners and the civic body on aspects such tax slabs, type of property and common area declaration, all of which the BBMP says will be settled with the GEPTIS survey.
