Members of the Upper House of the state legislature on Tuesday demanded that the state government introduce Property Identification (PID) numbers in all local bodies and collect the dues from defaulters.
Municipal Administration Minister M T B Nagaraj promised strict action against the local bodies over lapses and dereliction of duty in property tax evasion incidents.
Responding to a question asked by Congress MLC K Govindaraj, the minister said: “We collected Rs 711.18 crore (2018-19) and Rs 736.77 Crore (2019-20) and Rs 841.72 crore (2020-21) in property tax from various local bodies in the state. The property tax is being collected on the basis of self-disclosure scheme in the jurisdiction of all local bodies,” he added.
However, Govindaraj drew the government’s attention to the low tax collection in the Bengaluru Urban district in the last three years compared to districts such as Mysuru and Dakshina Kannada.
Demanding that all the properties be coded with PID numbers, he said: “The BBMP has implemented the property identification numbers and also online payment methods. The government should implement the same in all local bodies for property tax collection.”
As per the data tabled by the state government, Bengaluru Urban collected only Rs 3,546.04 lakh as property tax as against Mysuru (Rs 13,351.26 lakh) and Dakshina Kannada (Rs 7,570.36 lakh).
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