Bengaluru: Bengaluru city Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun has come up with the decision to take strict action against defaulters. The property tax collection by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has not the reached the target for 2018-19, and this is the reason for the Mayor’s decision to take action on defaulters.
The property tax target for 2018-19 was Rs 3,100 crore, and the BBMP managed to collect only Rs 2,170 crore for the last financial year ending in March 2017.
Gangambike has asked the eight BBMP Zonal Commissioners to prepare a list of the top 50 tax defaulters and check updates with regard to collection, every 15 days, during a meeting held on Thursday. Ward level officers were also asked to take steps to improve tax collection by the Mayor.
“The BBMP officials are armed with lot of power to collect revenue from the defaulters. We have been resorting to methods such as beating drums in front of the properties of big defaulters and ‘naming and shaming them’, all of this hasn’t helped much. Laws do not permit us to lock up or seize properties of defaulters but we do have powers to seize immovable properties. This can be furniture, fridge, washing machine and others.” Gangambike said.
