Bengaluru: The BBMP has collected nearly Rs 273 crore from property tax defaulters in the last five months, according to data released by the civic body.
The data showed that dues of Rs 738 crore were pending from 3.95 lakh property owners at the beginning of this financial year.
Of this, nearly Rs 273 crore has been recovered from 1.3 lakh defaulters since April. That apart, in just last week, Rs 26.94 crore was collected from 26,862 property owners.
Recently, the BBMP published a list of top property tax defaulters on its website, naming and shaming them.
On Monday, pointing to the list and the huge amount of pending dues, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanded that the BBMP recover the dues at the earliest. AAP leaders also alleged that political pressure was stopping officials from collecting dues from influential defaulters.
Mohan Dasari, the party's state organising secretary, noted that the civic body had closed two post offices functioning out of BBMP-owned buildings, stating that they were due on rents, but had left out property tax defaulters who owe hundreds of crores freely.
"As against the rental dues, here, property tax dues run to Rs 900-1,000 crore. Those who have defaulted on tax dues are reputable and the BBMP does not even have the courage to issue notices to them,” he said.
The BBMP data also showed that the civic body has attached 49,499 properties this financial year and sealed down 4,600 non-residential properties owing to property tax dues.
Published 03 September 2024, 01:09 IST