BMP on drive to collect tax

BANGALORE: Fund-crunched BBMP has now engaged itself in resource mobilisation. In a drive to collect property tax from defaulters in Mahadevapura zone, BBMP has started serving notices on them.
In the first phase of the drive, the focus is more on the properties that have to pay tax to the tune of more than Rs one lakh. There are 180 such properties in the zone.
In the year 2010-11, the target was to collect Rs 85 crore property tax and BBMP collected Rs 158 crore. This year, BBMP has set a target of Rs 214.35 crore.
Besides, BBMP has also been cross-checking the tax paid by commercial units under the self-assessment scheme. Those hotels and industries which have not paid tax in the last 2-3 years, have been served notices. BBMP has cancelled the licences of some of the defaulter hotels in this zone and locked them. More than 10,000 defaulters have been traced and they have been issued with both showcause and demand notice.
Based on the instructions of BBMP commissioner Siddaiah, teams comprising the joint commissioner, revenue officials and tax collectors were formed in the zone. The drive to find defaulters will continue in the zone for the augmentation of property tax collection, said Mahadevapura joint commissioner K N Devaraju.