Citizens in Bengaluru fume over unfair property tax, Real Estate News, ET Real Estate

Bangalore: Generally the rules say that property tax is decided on the basis of total area in the city. Although Bangalore Development Authority ,BDA) has been aggregating assets on the basis of slab system. If an allottee gets a few square meters more than the site that comes under the first slab, he has to pay the tax prescribed for the second slab which is almost double the amount.

This slab system is affecting those who bought corner sites in the public auction. For example, the BDA fixed Rs 900 for a site measuring 9×12 square meters (108 square metres). The next slab is 12×18 square meters and the property tax for this site is around Rs 1,800.

If a person purchased a corner site or a normal site in an auction and that site is slightly larger than a site falling under the first slab, the owner of the site would have to pay property tax as prescribed for sites under the second slab category.

“Instead of collecting property tax for the total area on the basis of square meter or square feet, the BDA revenue officials are collecting more tax from the property owners. I bought a corner site at a public auction. The size of the site is slightly larger than the site covered under the first slab (6×9 sq.m.). The BDA revenue officials charged me double the amount of the second slab,” said Varun, the owner of the site Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout,

Expressing a similar opinion, Santosh, the owner of the site in the layout, said that he too paid double the property tax. Santosh said, “Though the total amount is a few thousand rupees, it is not fair for BDA revenue officials to collect property tax under the slab system.”

Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout has sites of various sizes. The BDA collects property tax under the slabs of 6×9 sq m, 9×12 sq m, 12×18 sq m, 15×24 sq m and above.

BDA revenue officers are collecting more tax from property owners instead of collecting property tax for the entire area-Varun, owner of a site in Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout

“If the BDA continues to collect property tax under the slab system, it will adversely affect site owners,” said Surya Kiran, spokesperson of the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout Open Forum.

Meanwhile, the BDA floated a tender for the construction of an underpass and cast-in-situ boxes with retaining walls for the service road and connecting approach road on both sides at an estimated cost of Rs 3,745.19 lakh. BDA has fixed a time of 18 months including monsoon to complete the work.