BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is in news again for the wrong reason with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (Local Bodies) report (for the year ended on March 2010), which was tabled in Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, revealing that Rs 1,065 crore was lying in 165 bank accounts without transferring it to the nodal bank account.Announcing this at a press conference on Wednesday, Keerti Tewari, Accountant General (LBA&A) said, “As a part of our audit of financial transactions of Urban Local Bodies, we randomly took up the self-assessment scheme (SAS) of property tax in BBMP.It was found that more than Rs 1,000 crore in 165 bank accounts were being operated in names of individuals which are fraught with the risk of misappropriation of funds. The account holders include those working in BBMP.”BBMP is statutorily empowered to levy and collect tax to keep up the basic services in the city and property tax is its principal source of revenue. The CAG report also stated that the BBMP’s mechanism in property tax management is suffering from several deficiencies. “BBMP has abnormally delayed the process of collecting data by conducting physical surveys of properties in its limits based on the digital mappings of the area using Geographical Information System (GIS),” the report added. According to Keerti Tewari, BBMP is sitting over a ‘goldmine’ and the delay has hindered the comprehensive collection of data base of properties. “There have been instances of incorrect declaration of properties and their usage pattern which led to short payments of property tax of Rs 207.35 crore during the years 2008-10,” she added. The ineffective revenue collection mechanisms have been evidenced from non-maintenance of database, cash books of bank accounts, registers, non-verification of returns filed, un-encashed cheques etc. BBMP has not taken any measure to revise the rates of the property tax and is collecting money which was prescribed in the year 2001,” Tewari pointed out. This report has been placed before both the houses of Legislature and will be placed before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in order to discuss and take action based on the report. “The action taken report (ATR) for the year 2008-09 is still awaited,” Tewari said, in response to a question about the ATR of earlier reports. She also pointed out that BBMP which is running out of funds will get huge money if property taxes are collected with data base and said that their next report will throw more light on BBMP.
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