BENGALURU: With just about four months left for the financial year to end, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is sending notice to more than six lakh house owners over pending property taxes.
The BBMP is trying out a new means to get property owners to pay up pending tax dues by sending them messages on their mobile phone through SMS and WhatsApp. In the initial stage, notices were sent to 3.5 lakh property owners and now it is targeting six lakh house owners.
Palike Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath said, “The notices to 3.5 lakh property owners was sent as their second instalment of the property tax is due. Also, many have defaulted for several years. For now, we are issuing notices to those who paid the previous year’s tax and haven’t paid this year, or those who paid the first instalment and are due to pay the second instalment. We will cover all property owners in due course”.
The Palike is also issuing physical notices to property tax defaulters as owners are trying to evade paying tax by citing old tenands: “In cases where the owner is not staying in a property and has rented it out, the notices are stuck on the wall and a copy is given to the tenant. The notice has the name of the property owner and not the tenant”, he said.
The chief commissioner explained that as per the rule, the person in possession of the property can also pay the tax. “If the owners does not come forward to pay the tax dues, we can ask the occupier of the building to pay the dues. The occupier can pay the tax to the BBMP and deduct it from the rent he pays the owner”, he added.