Bengaluru Central Corporation targets major commercial establishments for tax evasion

In a bid to increase revenue, the Bengaluru City Central Corporation has launched an intense crackdown against property tax violators of commercial establishments.

The initiative aims to generate revenue of around ₹6 to ₹8 crore from each commercial center under its jurisdiction.

The central corporation, which includes the Central Business District (CBD), consists of many large commercial centers and with them a large number of violators. A significant number of organizations were identified that declared false information under the Self-Assessment System (SAS) for the purpose of tax evasion.

Audits

Over the past few days, several teams led by revenue officers inspected commercial establishments in Shanthinagar, Indiranagar, Domlur and MG Road and identified around 21 defaulters who will now have to pay the tax amount they evaded.

Senior officers told Hindu He said that delays will also be calculated and fines will be applied.

One of the most common violations is misrepresenting the use case, a senior company official said. “Owners declare false information about the space rented for commercial use and residential use. Being SAS, they declare lower tax liability and pay less tax to the civic body,” the officer said.

For example, a commercial building with a total area of ​​6,000 m2 may declare that only 3,000 m2 is rented and the rest is owned, even if 5,000 m2 is rented. Tax on expensive commercial buildings is paid only for the declared 3,000 m².

Although such violations are supposed to be detected by the revenue officers of the civic body, officials often accept bribes from violators and let them go, causing the company to incur losses.

Twenty teams were created

To fill this gap, the company has created 20 teams for ongoing work. These teams consist of officers from different neighborhoods to ensure that they do not know the property owners and cannot be influenced or bribed.

The company manages more than five commercial-dominated areas including CBD, Chikpete, Indiranagar and Commercial Street. In each centre, authorities have prepared a list of 100 important properties and are carrying out inspections.

If violations are detected, a reasoned notification will be given to property owners. Owners can appeal the notice or, if they accept the findings, pay penalties and revise their statements.

future plans

A senior official told Hindu It was stated that the current move focuses only on commercial establishments, as the penalties for residential buildings will be lower. However, the company may undertake home ownership verification in the future.

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