BBMP gears up to collect dues

BANGALORE: At a review meeting recently, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner M K Shankarlinge Gowda directed officials to collect the property tax and reach a target of Rs 500 crore by March 2012. The civic body’s Revenue Department officials are on toes to meet the new target.They are serving notices to the commercial complexes, educational institutes,  apartments, tech parks, malls, multiplexes, community halls, restaurants, lodges, hospitals and others industrial buildings housing which are presently out of the BBMP’s tax net. Notices will be served before January 15, 2012, sources added.Express checks out various means of BBMP’s initiative to collect tax.Request to Pay Tax Commissioner M K Shankarlinge has directed his officials to prepare a list of tax defaulters in their zones and visit their home personally. “First our officials will visit their houses to request. I have told them to call on residents at least three times. I am optimistic that some of them will pay their dues after our officials call on them,” he said. According to a senior official,  the Commissioner has directed deputy commissioners of each zone to visit the first three to four top property tax defaulters in their zone daily and serve notices. On the same day, they have to submit the pending amount details and other property details of those defaulters.Beating DrumsThe Commissioner said that if the tax defaulters fail to pay dues even after requests, drums would be beaten in front of their houses. A team of three to four drum beaters along with BBMP’s revenue officials will visit tax defaulters’ houses and start beating the drums till they pay the tax. With this method, BBMP expects to get back its long pending dues.