‘BBMP can tap properties worth Rs 50K crore for taxes’

BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike can strengthen its finances if properties worth Rs 50,000 crore are registered and tapped for revenue, former chairman of the BBMP Standing Committee for Public Works Mohan Kumar said on Saturday.

“If all the BBMP properties in Bengaluru are tapped, registered and issued a unique property identification number, the Palike will be financially strong, self-sufficient and on par with corporations in other cities, including Mumbai. Bengaluru is a high tax-earning city, but the BBMP is struggling for finances,” Kumar said at the virtual interactive meeting Namma Nayakaru of Resident Welfare Associations, corporators and Mayors, organised by NGO Janaagraha.

To strengthen BBMP’s finances, revenue and estates committees should be strengthened, he said.  Former Mayor M Goutham Kumar backed Mohan Kumar’s views, adding that BBMP officials are not interested in earning more revenues for the palike. “The Mumbai corporation has declared its assets, but the BBMP has not done it till now, because it does not have proper records.

We started the exercise of identifying properties and clearing encroachments, but it needs to be taken forward by officials,” he said. The former elected representatives unanimously demanded that ward committees, and not engineers, should be given more powers to decide what is best for a ward. They demanded that in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Act 2020, which the state government is constituting, standing committees, should be given more authority, otherwise, they should be scrapped. 

Shivaraju, head of the taxation standing committee, said that last year, the BBMP collected Rs 2,400 crore in taxes, and this year Rs 3,000-3,500 crore. However, the corporation’s annual budget is over Rs 10,000 crore. Though the State announces that it will fund 70 per cent of Palike’s requirements, the actual amount released is not more than 30 per cent.