bbmp property tax

Bengaluru has lost out on hundreds of crores of rupees in property tax revenue, only because it did not verify tax declarations and did not raise tax rates in over a decade. This is as per an audit of BBMP for the years 2008-2010, by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). In a press release on March 28th, BBMP has sounded the gong for 2012-13 tax collections. According to the report, false tax declarations alone created loss of at least Rs 207.35 cr in 2008-10. This was based on a sample audit of 169 declarations alone, from 16…

The BBMP Tax Collection System is in shambles. Neither the help centres nor the online system is user friendly. I am listing below the various problems faced by tax payers.1. Application Forms not properly worded. The depreciation clause in the ‘Instructions to Tax Payers' booklet should be clear as to where and how to apply this clause. The tax calculated for 2009-10 will not be the same as in 2008-09, if this clause is applied as per its real meaning. It will be higher because of the use of ‘Net Taxable Annual Value' without depreciation for the subsequent years in…

By mid-April I was becoming allergic to the calendar. “Don’t look at the date”, I told myself. The April 30th deadline for paying property tax was approaching. "There are no forms available at the Sanjaynagar centre yet", said a friend.  "I downloaded the form but they refused to accept it because it doesn’t have the acknowledgement form," said another (Why doesn’t it have an acknowledgement form? Good question.)With just a week left, I decided to pay up, and “be done with it”. That morning’s newspapers said some Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO’s) were being authorised to collect property tax. So I…