BENGALURU: After Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) announced that it would accept old currency notes from tax defaulters, the civic agency has collected Rs 12 crore in the past 10 days in just old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
After the Union Finance Ministry announced that the demonetised notes can be accepted till November 24, BBMP announced that it will collect old currency notes for various taxes including property tax, advertisement tax and also betterment charges.
The cash-strapped civic agency has collected Rs 22 crore in taxes since November 12 from defaulters, of which Rs 12 crore was paid using old currency notes, said M K Gunashekar, chairman of the BBMP Standing Committee on Taxation and Finance. He added that Rs 10 crore was paid online.
Gunashekar said BBMP had targeted to collect Rs 3,000 crore in property tax of which Rs 1,600 crore has been collected. “We are planning various strategies to collect the remaining amount. Starting this week, every Wednesday we will conduct a special tax collection drive where our officials will collect tax from major defaulters,’’ he added.
Speaking about the proposals to increase BBMP’s revenue, Gunashekar said they are planning to include the underground storage tank at petrol bunks under the tax net.
BBMP will also act on collecting service charges (25 per cent of total property tax and is applicable for government buildings) from BWSSB, which has properties in Cauvery Bhavan, overhead tanks, underground water sumps, ward offices and guest houses. BBMP is planning to collect the entire tax amount from defaulters who have not paid tax for the last five to seven years, he said.