BBMP now sets its sights on domestic properties

Radar on house owners who have rented out premises

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is devising new tactics to garner more property tax, an important revenue source for the cash-strapped civic body. After taking up reassessment of commercial properties, the civic body is now focussing on domestic properties.

Electoral rolls, khata

A senior official, on condition of anonymity, told

The Hindu that the BBMP was thinking of using the data of the electoral rolls and khata details to garner more tax. The official explained that many domestic tax payers would have suppressed the fact that they had rented out their premises under the Self-Assessment Scheme to pay less tax to the BBMP. “If a property owner declares that the premises has been rented out, the tax payable to the BBMP almost doubles. To prevent this, many property owners suppress this fact,” the official said.

As per the proposal, the data from the electoral rolls will be superimposed with that of the khata and other property records available with the BBMP. “We will then scrutinise the details and can easily detect whether the premises has been rented out. If it has not been rented out, it should reflect in the electoral rolls,” he added.

After detection, notice

Once such properties are detected, the BBMP can issue notices to the defaulting property owners. Asked how much revenue the BBMP hoped to garner through this method, the official said it would be difficult to even ballpark this figure since the number of defaulters have not yet been detected.

More to come

The official added the BBMP had devised another plan to get more tax from commercial properties.

The commercial properties that have come up over the past five years would be chosen for this. The sanctioned building plan, the khata details and the actual measurements (built-up area) would be compared. “Most commercial properties will have declared less built-up area. We will be able to calculate the variations and issue notices to the commercial property owners.”