Palike nets big fish

Palike nets big fish
Friday December 7 2007 07:43 IST

Basavaraj Itnal

BANGALORE: A five-star hotel in High Grounds pays property tax of about Rs 13 lakh while its built area of about 2.60 lakh sq ft must yield about Rs 1.5 crore.

Major educational institutes never bothered to get plans sanction from Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) leave alone paying tax. After proper assessment, upmarket UB City paid Rs 4.5 crore as property tax. IBC Knowledge Park which houses Accenture on Bannerghatta Road ended up paying about Rs 2 crore following BBMP notice.

The Palike is targeting big fish in the IT capital to solve its revenue puzzle. BBMP has identified 2,000 such high value properties in the city which were paying paltry sums in property tax.

Palike has already issued notices to 150 such buildings. The impact of the move is that big players are now volunteering to get their property assessed to the last brick. If these high value properties are properly re-assessed, the Palike would get more than Rs 1,500 crore without increasing the burden on small houses.

Palike Special Commissioner (Finance) Sandip Dash told this website's newspaper the civic body took the step after an analysis of pleas before the Appeals Committee.

“All the appeals were from owners of small properties seeking reduction of tax by Rs 1,000- 2,000. No owner of major properties had sought any revision. This meant that either the Palike was demonstrating exemplary efficiency or that the big fish were extremely happy with the tax assessment. We studied major buildings adopting total station survey and found a gaping valley between tax due and tax assessed,” he said.

On the other hand, public institutions like Indian Institute of Management (IIMB), Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA), HAL, BMTC, and HMT never felt the need to get building plans approved by the Palike. BBMP has issued notices to these authorities as well.

HMT alone may end up paying up about Rs 11 crore. Following a Palike notice, BMTC paid Rs 2 crore as advertisement licence fees - perhaps for the first time. However, Dash said Palike will not coerce anyone to pay higher tax.

“We don’t want a rupee more than legitimate tax. And not a rupee less. Because there is lack of enforcement on high value properties, small owners are subjected increasing tax rates. Once all biggies shell out their dues, Palike can even think of reducing the burden on common man,” he said.

Palike has handpicked five best lawyers in the city for the task.

Over to HC, says Thakur Bangalore, Dec 6: On Thursday, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur did not take any decision to allay fears among members of the public about Sakrama.

Instead, Thakur left it to the discretion of the judiciary. He told reporters after a three-hour meeting of the executive committee, that the issue was coming up before high court on Monday and that Government would go by HC orders.

But what about the fears among urbanites in the State about the scheme that was closing on next Friday? “People may go ahead and file their declarations under Sakrama. They don’t have to wait for the Government decision,” he said.

The Governor also said he had not written to the Centre about it and would not keep the scheme in abeyance. “The matter is between the State and judiciary. The Advocate General would file a report on Monday,” he said.