BBMP to re-audit large properties

With malls and tech parks being embroiled in most number of property tax disputes in the city, the civic body has now decided to re-audit large properties such as tech parks, malls, apartments and industrial units for property tax assessment.

M.K. Gunasekhar, chairman, Taxation and Finance Committee, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), said on Tuesday that the on-ground station survey would be completed in two months on a short-term tender. “We have decided to survey 51 shopping malls, 77 tech parks, 4,406 apartments and 4,834 industrial units,” he said.

The heart of most of the property tax suits is not a refusal to pay but an “under declaration” during self-assessment of properties. The dispute has been over the assessment of properties by the BBMP and the property owners in aspects like the tax slab, declaration of parking areas and other such places, which the BBMP hopes they will discover during the drive.

“The station survey will discover multiple cases of under declaration and property tax evasion which will increase the revenue for the civic body. This will also help us settle disputes and avoid future legal disputes,” Mr. Gunasekhar said.

Such cross-verification or resurvey by the civic body is in fact mandated by the SAS for property tax. The SAS, when it came into force in 2000, mandated a cross-verification of 5 per cent of properties every year, which was raised to 10 per cent in 2009-10. By these standards, all the properties in the city should have been cross-verified at least once by now. However, no such systemic random sampling of properties for cross verification has been done till date. Asked about the steps to bring properties into the tax net, Mr. Gunasekhar said the station survey of large properties in the tax net would be followed by efforts to survey such properties. Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board water tanks and underground fuel tanks at petrol pumps too will be taxed.

The civic body has collected over Rs. 22 crore of which Rs. 12 crore in cash and the rest in cheque, demand draft and other instruments towards payment of property tax since November 9, following the demonetisation of high-value currency. “This is only marginally higher than our usual collection during this period of the year,” said Mr. Gunasekhar.