BENGALURU: The BBMP, which has collected Rs 3,600 crore or 75% of the Rs 4,412 crore it had aimed to get as property tax in 2023-24, is looking to increase its target by a third for 2024-25.
The Palike plans to mop up Rs 6,000 crore in the coming year and is confident of achieving it by widening the tax net and plugging leaks.
The civic body collected Rs 3,600 crore as property tax by the first week of Feb 2024 and special commissioner (revenue) Munish Moudgil instructed his team to take the necessary steps to collect Rs 900 crore in the next 30 days to achieve the target.
The BBMP set the target of Rs 4,412 crore in its 2023-24 budget and later escalated it to Rs 4,500 crore. Officials said they are in the process of collecting Rs 1,000 crore more compared to what was mopped up in 2022-23.
Revenue officials found that 14,724 property owners had entered wrong details while paying tax using the self-assessment system. The Palike estimates to have issued tax demand notices for Rs 472 crore to these owners. Commercial power connection data from Bescom helped BBMP identify these properties and the Palike has taken up measures to collect tax from them under the commercial property tax head. This will help it increase tax collection, officials said.
BBMP chief commissioner Tushar Giri Nath recently said only about 20 lakh properties, with either A or B khata, are paying tax. He said there are several properties in the city without khatas and their owners are not paying taxes. The Palike has decided to identify these properties and bring them under the tax purview.
BBMP special commissioner (revenue) recently issued written instructions to officials to identify properties for which the owners had applied for building plan approval. Officials are collecting details of the number of plan approvals granted to collect tax from them.
