Bengaluru: In a big relief to the residents of the city, Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Tuesday announced a one-time relief measure and said that the interest payable on the arrears of property tax will be completely waived off and the penalty will be halved. He said that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) primary source of revenue is property tax and nearly 4 lakh citizens have not paid property tax amounting to Rs 1000 crores.
“For this the Government of Karnataka has taken a historic decision and introduced One Time Relief Scheme (OTS). Under this the interest payable on the arrears of property tax is completely waived and the penalty is halved,” he said a press conference today at Vidhansouda.
The window for the scheme is open till July 31, 2024. “This scheme is only available once in a lifetime and cannot be extended. So far only about 50000 people out of 4 lakh property heirs have availed this benefit. I request you to take this opportunity to pay the arrears of property tax on your property,” a post in Kannada from DK Shivakumar’s X handle, translated in English, said.
He said the BBMP Act provides for recovery of arrears of property tax. “However, our government and BBMP will also work together to help OTS citizens,” he added.
The post further mentioned that the Government of Karnataka has introduced many new initiatives in Bangalore city including (i) Citizen Self Declaration Based Temporary Property Tax Number (ii) Citizen Friendly Assistance App (iii) Naam Leke Mobile App (iv) Naam Park Mobile.
” We are committed to implementing more such development programmes. Citizens can easily pay property tax online through https://bbmptax.karnataka.gov.in. According to OTS, property tax arrears have already been reduced and will increase from August 1, 2024. I request all citizens to join hands for the development of our Bangalore city,” the deputy CM added.
