The BBMP officials have been given one week’s time to submit a report on action taken to improve revenue collection.
On Tuesday, Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had lambasted the BBMP officials for not improving revenue collections during Monday’s review meeting. He charged that officials are not interested in improving the financially health of the civic body and wondered if it would be able to meet the Rs. 2,500 crore property tax collection target this year.
Former chairperson of the Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance Manjunath Raju said that of the 16.29 lakh properties in the city, BBMP officials had completed revalidation of 10 lakh in 2010. “When Siddaiah was the Commissioner, 20 lakh properties were revalidated and the BBMP got Rs. 80 crore. There are three lakh properties whose dues amount to more than Rs. 1 lakh each. What is reason for the delay in revalidating the remaining 6.29 lakh properties,” he asked. He advised officials to maintain a list of properties, with separate columns for dues, arrears and the amount collected.
BifurcationA discussion in the BBMP council meeting on bifurcation of the civic body, which was to take place on Tuesday, was postponed. The discussion will now be taken up later this month. City in-charge Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy had written to BBMP seeking opinion of the councillors on the bifurcation in October last year. A majority of councillors, especially those from the ruling party (BJP), seem to be against bifurcation. Only a small section feels that it will improve administration.
