BENGALURU: Owners of two out of every five properties in the city continue to avoid paying the stipulated

promptly, according to

officials.

While the civic body’s GIS-enabled property tax information system has identified 19 lakh properties in its limits, only 11.5 lakh properties pay the levy. If every property is tax compliant, then the BBMP can mop up over Rs 4,000 crore, officials said.

The BBMP is racing against time to meet its

of Rs 3,100 crore. With less than three months left in the financial year, the agency has collected Rs 2,220 crore in taxes. Parks, playgrounds, shrines, BBMP properties and traffic circles are not assessed for property taxes. BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad told TOI: “A large number of properties, especially vacant plots in new BBMP areas, are regular defaulters.”

Owners not traceable to slap notice: BBMP chief

“Owners of vacant plots are not traceable to serve notice. Some of them do pay, once every 2-3 years,” BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad said. Warrants will be issued to defaulters by the end of this financial year. If warrants are ignored, officials will be empowered to confiscate moveable assets in the errant property and auction them to realize the tax money, Prasad said.

A revenue officer said every citizen should pay the tax regularly to avoid the penalty. With its budget of around Rs 10,000 crore, BBMP can provide better facilities to Bengalureans if the property tax potential is fully realized and with the help of government grants, he added.