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Greater Bengaluru Authority to target big-time property tax evaders

BENGALURU: Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao directed officials in all the five city corporations to identify properties with high outstanding dues across the GBA and initiate measures to recover the pending property tax. Addressing a virtual meeting held on Monday on property tax collection, e-khata, and the conversion of B-Khata to A-Khata, Rao instructed officials to trace major defaulters and pending revision cases, and ensure that the overdue property tax is collected promptly. He emphasized the need to identify individuals and properties currently outside the tax network and bring them under the property tax ambit. Commissioners of all city corporations must prioritize property tax collection, conduct daily review meetings with revenue officers, issue necessary directives, and take steps to increase tax collection, he said. Speaking on the occasion, Special Commissioner (Revenue), Munish Moudgil said that the five city corporations have been given a target of Rs 6,700 crore tax collection, of which Rs 3,533 crore has been collected so far. He stressed the need to focus on property tax collection, especially from revision cases and defaulters. Across the five city corporations, there are 24,000 property tax revision cases amounting to nearly Rs 170 crore. In addition to this, around 22,000 defaulters owe Rs 598 crore. Officials were instructed to give special attention to recovering these dues. Each city corporation must prepare a list of 100 revision cases and 100 major defaulters in every division. Revenue Inspectors and Revenue Collectors must be assigned clear targets, and commercial properties must be sealed wherever necessary to ensure recovery of outstanding property tax, said Rao. He also mentioned about the new khatas and said that applications for new khatas submitted within city corporation limits must be verified and processed promptly, as this will increase city corporation revenue. Likewise, applications for conversion from B-Khata to A-Khata must be reviewed and completed within the stipulated timeline. City Corporation Commissioners Rajendra Cholan, Pommala Sunil Kumar, Ramesh D S, Ramesh K N, Rajendra K V and Additional Commissioners (Revenue), Joint Commissioners, NIC technical directors, and other officials attended the meeting.