BANGALORE: Good news for property tax defaulters. Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has temporarily stopped beating drums in front of the homes of property tax defaulters.BBMP, which resorted to drum-beating to collect property tax in the third week of September, wherein people, who ignored BBMP notices which were sent. This was a novel way of the Palike to collect tax dues from defaulters by embarrassing them in front of their house or property site. BBMP even decided to seal the property, if the owners failed to pay the tax through this method, even if the owner happens to be residing there. However, Palike officials ended up compromising with the owners, who paid part of the tax and promised Palike to pay remaining through installment.Palike authorities had expected Rs 200 crore from the property defaulters by seeking drum beaters’ help. “It even decided to utilise the funds for civic amenities. But, Palike so far could earn only around Rs 8 crore,” said Deputy Mayor Harish.Harish said that the drum beating was conducted for more than a month. “With the election commission’s instruction, the revenue officials of BBMP are busy in issuing voter’s identification cards. Revenue official were told to add and delete voters identification information on the cards and correct mistakes on existing cards. Election commission has given them (revenue officials) the task and has asked them to complete this work by November end,” he said.As revenue officials were currently busy, it was not possible for them to concentrate on collecting taxes too, he said and added that the they will resume work by first week of December. “Palike has targeted to collect Rs 1,300 crore through property tax, of which we have already collected Rs 1,100 crore. Remaining will be collected soon,” he said.
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