BBMP is making earnest efforts to mop up property tax, but the results are not encouraging. Data accessed says property tax collected by the civic body between April 1 and June 29 this year is 28% short of what the civic body had mobilised during the same period last year.
It has collected Rs 1,646 crore in property tax till June 29 this financial year, whereas the amount for the April-June period last year was Rs 2,287 crore. This year’s collection is only 32% of the targeted Rs 5,210 crore. BBMP officials say the shortfall is not worrying as two of the first three months of this financial year was when the entire state was busy in LS polls. They said the 5% rebate offered for those paying the levy till April 30 has been extended till July 31.
Officials cited the pick-up in the daily collections during the one week ending June 29 in support of their claim that things are looking up.
BBMP collected Rs 25 crore in property tax every day on average during the week against the required Rs 13 crore needed to achieve the target.
The shortfall in collections – when compared to last year’s mop-up – has not been uniform across the BBMP’s eight zones. Mahdevapura has reported the highest year-on-year downfall at 38%, followed by Yelahanka (31%), East zone 28%, and South 25%. The downfall in the other four zones is in the range of 13-22%. “While the daily collection trends are promising, we need to intensify our efforts to bridge the gap and meet overall targets. The discrepancies between daily collections and overall target percentages indicate areas where we must focus rigorously,” Munish Moudgil, special commissioner (revenue), BBMP, told.