BHUBANESWAR: BMC has decided to make regular field visits to check whether house owners, who are using residential buildings for commercial purposes, have stopped such unauthorized operations or not.
The move comes after none of them turned up at the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office to apply for a license allowing commercial operations or to file self-declaration forms stating they have stopped such operations.
The BMC had given such house owners a week’s time to stop operations or apply for commercial licence. The BMC has submitted the list of offenders to city DCP Anup Sahu.
On July 31, it had issued notice to 40 house owners for violating norms. Several commercial outlets such as hotels, corporate offices and educational institutions are being run in residential houses by hoodwinking the BMC resulting in substantial loss of revenue to the state exchequer.
Deputy Commissioner (north zone) Pramod Prusty said BMC personnel will go from door-to-door to find out whether the owners are still running the commercial outlets. He added that BMC has given the list of violators to police. It will move police again if it finds that the commercial operations are still being carried on from residential spaces.
If the violations persist, BMC will continue to lose revenue as it is now collecting the holding tax according to the slabs charged on residential buildings.
There are different slabs of holding tax assessment for commercial buildings. The holding tax assessment for commercial complexes is far more than the residential ones. Secondly, the commercial establishments need to procure trade license for running businesses.
Source: ET Realty