The Karnataka cabinet decision on Thursday to provide relief to 78,000 Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) property tax defaulters on account of “mistakes” from “both sides” over wrong zonal classification leading to pending taxes since 2016-17, will give immediate relief to no less than 11,000 property owners who have already paid the penalty along with their pending taxes.
For, according to the BBMP, a majority of the 11,000 property owners have paid “excess” taxes when compared to the state government decision to only add a simple interest of 12 percent per annum to their pending taxes.
BBMP joint commissioner (revenue) Venkatachalapathy said that the 11,000 tax payers have deposited a sum of Rs 20 crore already and that the difference amount paid by them will be adjusted towards the taxes of next few fiscals, depending upon the extent of excess payment.
“The state government decision, as we understand from the statements in the media, will help both the BBMP and the tax payers. While the payment amount will be reduced, it will also accrue the Palike an interest of 12 percent on the pending amount,” said the Palike official.
He said the BBMP will now setup a software for the calculation of the back payments of the 11,000 people who have already paid their taxes and also the rest 67,000 owners to make the necessary payment on their pending property tax.
However, BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta said the final decision will have to be read and understood by the Palike as the government order has to come to them.
“The defaulters payment issue is a pending case of over 4 to 5 years. Now, if the government has decided to waive off the entire penalty entirely then will be a certain financial repercussion and if it just a portion of the penalty and maintain certain amount of interest then it will have another monetary fallout. We need to understand what exactly will be the model that has been agreed upon by the government,” said Gupta.
The senior IAS officer said the BBMP did not have any inclination of the problems until it conducted a physical survey in 2021.
“We do not know what exactly happened in 2016-17. Whether there was an inadvertent error or the officials then had not communicated decisions properly or whether the people themselves committed a mistake by themselves will required a detailed understanding,” said Gupta.
The BBMP is expecting the orders early next week, following which it will issue a circular to all its zones and also begin on the software modulations to provide the calculations for the 78,000 defaulters to make their back payments as per the new government decision.