Cash-strapped BBMP will soon launch a street campaign to collect property taxes from major defaulters.
According to Mayor B S Sathyanarayana, this drive is expected to increase tax collection by `1,000 crore.
He said a team of officials of BBMP and Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force and councillors, will go to the streets where more tax defaulters are present.
Sathyanarayana said this drive aims to collect taxes from major defaulters like IT-BT companies and other commercial establishments. The team will personally visit buildings and assess taxes.
“The team will also crosscheck the built-up area and compare it with the data declared by the owners under the Self Assessment Scheme (SAS). If any difference is found, notice will be issued to collect the remaining amount,” he said. He added that this drive is expected to be conducted at zonal level.
Members of BBMP’s Taxation and Finance Committee recently visited the Wipro campus in Sarjapur to collect dues of `16.47 crore. But Wipro authorities refused to pay. In turn, they released a note claiming that it was an illegal attempt by the civic authorities to collect money from them.
Irked by this, councillors, cutting across party lines, raised their voice against the company. Following this, the civic body now proposes to conduct street campaigning to collect property taxes from major defaulters.
Mayor to Write to State Govt
According to Sathyanarayana, BBMP revenue officials are given additional work like ration card survey, electoral work and other non-revenue related works.
“As they are given additional works, they are not able to concentrate on tax collection. I shall write to the State government soon, requesting them not to give other works to revenue officials,” he said.
A senior BBMP official said, at present, there were more than 600 officers working in the Revenue Department including tax inspectors and revenue officers.
“Around 25 to 30 per cent people pay their taxes under SAS. With this, existing staff are sufficient to collect taxes. But given additional tasks, these officials are not able to collect taxes,” sources said.