BENGALURU: Among many options the cash-strapped Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is exploring to raise revenues is an amendment to the Karnataka Municipal Act, which governs the BBMP, to allow it to attach moveable properties of property tax defaulters. The Palike wants the KMC Act amended to incorporate the powers in Sections 95-170 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act to allow it to seize moveable properties of tax defaulters and auction them to recover dues.
“At present, the BBMP has the power to seize immovable properties of defaulters and recover property tax, but it is difficult as there are many legal hassles and the exercise itself is not simple. So, through the Administrator, we are proposing to the government to amend the KMC Act to allow us to seize moveable properties too,” a senior revenue department official in the BBMP told TNIE.BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad wrote to Administrator Gaurav Gupta on September 19, urging him to look into the feasibility of amending the Act as recommended by the Standing Committees on Tax, Finance, and Town Planning before their tenures ended.
BBMP revenue officials have also been asked to put together a list of defaulters to make its case stronger.
Former Tax and Finance Standing Committee chairman L Srinivas said that apart from amending the Act, the corporation must be aggressive and take bold steps to net big realtors, firms and clubs who have leased or rented BBMP properties. “They neither pay taxes on time nor adhere to the lease period. Officials must identify them, take back such properties, and auction or hand them over to private players to earn revenue,” he said.
Official figures showed that the BBMP collected Rs 1,923 crore as property tax from 11,98,852 properties between March and August. A senior revenue official said the amount for the period should have been around Rs 3,000 crore, but was lower due to the pandemic. “Though unpaid taxes will be recovered in the next financial year, the issue of defaulters will continue,” the official said.
Interestingly, the move comes at a time when the Joint Legislative BBMP Restructuring Committee is working on drafting the Bengaluru Municipal Act 2020 to remove Bengaluru from the purview of the KMC Act because of its geographical and demographic size, and before the next Council is elected.