Middle-class fumes as e-khata tax whip spares big fish, targets commoners in Bengaluru
Questioning the very system that allows gross misappropriations to fester and lets the big fish slip through, while tightening the noose around commoners, many now want Bengaluru district in-charge minister D K Shivakumar to intervene and end their harassment.
"The bureaucrats piloting the e-khata project and deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar should have some clarity on this. Why should we suffer and be forced to prove our credentials when they cannot streamline the system? Why hand out notices after issuing e-khatas, when the discrepancies in property tax declarations could have been pointed out earlier? This is nothing but harassment," some of the affected property owners said after they were slapped with notices.
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Worst affected are residents of Shantinagar assembly constituency, where the e-khata system was first introduced before its rollout in other parts of the city.
"A notice has been issued demanding tax for the car parking slot in my apartment. What is weird is that BBMP has unilaterally decided the dimensions of the parking lot, without even cross-checking documents or physically inspecting the apartment. Now, we are left with two options: Either pay the amount and move on; or counter the BBMP's claim through a cumbersome legal and bureaucratic maze," said Richmond Town resident Rajat Rao.
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Highlighting gross anomalies in the entire process, Vijay Kumar, a Yelahanka resident, said: "BBMP officials themselves have advised us to under-report property sizes during e-khata registration. When I bought my flat, which is 1,700 sq ft, the revenue staff suggested I disclose just 1,500 sq ft. When I questioned it, they told me not to worry and hinted at a Rs 500 bribe. Now I've got a notice. Who is responsible here?"
He added: "When I raised the issue, the official suggested I appeal with BBBMP's e-court.
Now this is another sham. I am supposed to appeal for something that I'm not even responsible for, but has been wrongly accused of."
Another citizen, Sudhindra Halappa Gowda, said: "While we are being tortured so much, what about all the bureaucrats and politicians who are not even paying taxes? They are not being penalised. Why is the middle-class suffering?"
The issue appears to have been triggered by a software check introduced recently.
BBMP's new system, Kauvery, automatically flagged any mismatch in property area details between e-khata and EPID.
A senior BBMP official, though, defended the system, saying: "We don't manually input anything. The software picks up discrepancies. If people have entered wrong details in their e-khatas, how are we to blame?"
He added: "Car parking area is never explicitly mentioned in the sale deed in terms of size — only the super built-up area is.
Citizens have ignored this all along, but parking space is also a property and tax is due on it."
BBMP's stand
Commenting on the current impasse, Munish Moudgil, the BBMP special commissioner (revenue), said: "We have issued notices only in case of properties where the variation is more than 5%. For those under 5%, we didn't intend to send any alerts.
"However, due to a technical glitch on the part of NIC, mass emails were sent out even to those who were not at fault. These affected residents can appeal, and we will resolve the issue promptly."
Yet, the question that taxpayers are raising is that why should they be wasting their time for someone else's inefficiency?"
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