Mayor N. Shanthakumari turned tax collector for a day on Tuesday. She, accompanied by her deputy K. Ranganna and others, was successful in collecting property tax dues amounting to a whopping Rs. 11.46 crore from Bagamane Tech Pack.
Bagamane Developers Pvt. Ltd. officials handed over three cheques to the Mayor and her entourage.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is cracking the whip against property tax defaulters in the city.
The cash-strapped civic body relies on property tax, which is a major component of its revenue.
Though there are 16.23 lakh properties under BBMP limits, the tax collection has not been commensurate with the estimated revenue as per the yearly budgets.
Last year (by the end of the 2013–14 fiscal), the BBMP was able to collect a total of Rs. 1,323 crore as property tax.
CM sets targetThis year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has set a target of Rs. 2,900 crore for the BBMP. Though the tax collections have improved this year, BBMP’s Revenue officials are not sure if they can meet the target.
A senior Revenue official told The Hindu that around 30 properties who owe the civic body over Rs. 1 crore as property tax had been identified.
“There are many properties that owe the BBMP property tax of more than Rs. 1 crore. But most of them are disputed properties or are embroiled in court cases with the BBMP. The 30-odd properties that have been identified do not fall under either category. We are focussing our efforts on recovering the tax due from these defaulters,” the official said.
Deadline of Dec. 15V. Anand, chairperson of BBMP’s Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance, said that some of the property owners who owe tax dues of over Rs. 1 crore had not paid tax since 2008–09. He said such properties have been given a deadline of December 15 to clear their dues.
