BBMP to rely on Bescom info, raise tax collection from commercial properties

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has decided go after those evading property tax by showing their premises being used for commercial purposes as residential units. For this, it has decided to cross-verify against power connections from transformers.

If citizens of Bengaluru want to see improvements in the city, better tax compliance has to be ensure. However, some businesses are listing their premises as residential instead of commercial property. As a result of this, the civic body is being cheated of hundreds of crores in property tax.

The BBMP will use data from Besom on the number of residential and commercial power connections from each transformer and the total number of units of power being consumed. It will then collate the information with its own data to identify properties from where commercial activities are being carried out but shown as residential premises.

Deepak, special commissioner said, BBMP is planning to bank attachment system to recover due revenue from the malls.

Deepak, BBMP Special Commissioner said, “As many as six to seven malls have tax dues of Rs 56 crore. We will take measures to recover the dues. We are planning to make recoveries by attaching bank accounts. It is a new model. Under the BBMP Act, 2020, movable and immovable properties, and banks can be attached, but it has not been implemented so far. We are enforcing it for the first time. We need to train BBMP staff in this regard. A SoP has been formed after taking the opinion of the chief commissioner and discussing it with the legal department. As per the act, it is directed to take any financial step, including seizure of commercial establishments. We will give 7 to 10 days time to property owners before we attach their bank accounts. Although many commercial properties have been identified using geolocation, a BBMP survey has shown that they are listed as residential. They were identified based on power consumption”.

Zone No of properties
Yelahanka 3,200
Dasarahalli 994
Bommanahalli 3,545
Mahadevpura 2,562
RR Nagar 2,139
East 3,928
West 4,075
South 3,954
Total 24,397

Deepak further said, “There is seperate database available with Bescom of consumers. We can match the power consumption information with the assessment database. The exercise was carried out by our own employees. We have created an algorithm to match the names and addresses. By this, we can find out revenue leakages. We have given instructions to collect tax dues after issuing revision notices to those people. According to the calculations, approximately Rs 130 crore of tax difference have been found so far. In the first phase, we identified 25,000 properties”.

“The next task will be to determine how many connections were permitted for residential and commercial purposes. We are in the process of mapping. If it is successful, we will use this technique to prevent revenue leakages”, he added

The civic body will use geo mapping, Bescom bills and transformer information to identify tax evasion and increase tax collection. Citizens can hopefully see improved infrastructure in the days to come.