Mantri Mall shut again over property tax issue

BENGALURU: Mantri Mall has been locked yet again for non-payment of property taxes to the tune of Rs 30.81 crore, which has to be paid to GBA. Due to this, hundreds of employees had been waiting on the road since morning.

Regarding the tax arrears, Bengalur Central Corporation Commissioner Rajendra Cholan said that the mall authorities have not been paying tax properly for many years and therefore, he ordered the staff to seal the on Wednesday. “They have a total of over Rs 30 crore in pending taxes. Whatever provision is there in the law, we will take action accordingly”, he said.
Cholan further said, “The mall management has to pay arrears of over Rs 20 crore. We issued notice, but they did not reply, so I ordered it to be shut down. It is not just Mantri Mall, anyone with dues of over Rs 5 lakh will be given notice. I have instructed that notice be given to defaulters. We have called revenue officers and listed out the properties. If defaulters do not respond after the notice, we will close them down. We will take action as per property tax guidelines, we will do whatever is required, even in the courts”.

“We have identified 188 buildings on Indira Nagar 100‑foot road with tax dues. We have not used the CV Raman revenue officer; we have used other area revenue officers to identify such defaulting properties. We have given notice to everyone. Tax dues of Rs 9 crore is pending and we will collect it”, he added.

The GBA mega‑plan has prepared a list of tax defaulters from the Central commissionerate. The list of 188 buildings, including Indira Nagar, Chickpet, Commercial Street and other areas.