Unlike earlier years when only the names of top 10 property tax defaulters were made public, this year the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has chosen to release the top five defaulters in each zone—with Mahadevapura zone meriting 14 defaulters— given the higher amount of taxes owed. The list—released on Monday— also revealed that of the top 10 defaulters made public in June, seven have paid their dues.
“We are owed a total of Rs. 16,184.94 lakh as property tax from the top defaulters from each of our zones. We have already sent notices to these establishments,” said M. Shivaraju, chairperson, BBMP, Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance.
From the list of top 10 defaulters released in June, BBMP had proceeded to seize movable assets and lock down establishments that were not cooperating. “We have collected Rs. 61.57 crore in total from seven establishments through our various efforts. The remaining amount will also be collected soon,” he said, adding that this year, they had also successfully filed caveats in the courts and prevented many commercial establishments from filing unnecessary petitions.
Mr. Shivraju was declaring the BBMP’s finances in terms of taxes received, legal issues and defaults before the Mayoral elections on September 19. “We have also uncovered 590 bogus khata certificates that were released in Bommanahalli zone. We have recovered Rs.100 crore from issues that have been tied up in litigation since 2004. We have also generated Rs. 175 crore in revenue from advertising this year alone, up from the paltry Rs. 40 crore that was approximately generated every year. This, we did by initiating the proper enquiries,” said Mr. Shivaraju.
He added that they had also recovered more than Rs. 6 crore that has been lost from cheque bounce cases from the previous years.
