The BBMP launched e-khata in October last year after the State Revenue Department made the document mandatory for any form of land transactions.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) with an aim to incentivise e-khata, is contemplating a 5% rebate on property tax for owners securing the digital document. This may come into effect in the next financial year after receiving a green signal from the Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister, D.K. Shivakumar, sources said.

The BBMP has been providing a 5% rebate for early birds (advance taxpayers) under Section 144 (8) of the BBMP Act 2020. This fiscal, the civic body provided a window till July 31, 2024. The BBMP till January this year, collected ₹4,370 crore in property tax which is 83% achievement against the total stipulated target.

The BBMP launched e-khata on October 1 last year after the State Revenue Department made the document mandatory for any form of land transactions.

A senior BBMP official talking to The Hindu said, “So far, 14 lakh draft khatas have been downloaded and over 1 lakh e-khatas have been issued by the civic body. With an aim to speed up the process, we are planning to incentivise those who take this document. We are considering providing a 5% rebate to the owners who secure the e-khata before June or July 31. We have yet to decide on the month.”

Asked if this rebate will be in addition to the early birds, the official said, “The Revenue Department has not arrived at any decision on this. But we believe the rebate will increase the distribution of e-khata.” 

New Khata

The BBMP is also now processing applications for obtaining new khata for owners who do not have manual khata for the properties.  According to the official, so far on the dedicated website (https://bbmp.karnataka.gov.in/newkhata.) launched on January 13, 10,000 applications have been received.

The property owners are required to pay property tax from the date of registration till the date of getting the new khata and this will bring good revenue to the BBMP.

According to rough estimation, there are about 5 lakh such properties across the city. “We are carefully looking into the location of land provided by the owners to ensure that no government land is being tagged by private parties. From next week, we may commence issuing new khata to the applicants,” the official said.

Home delivery

The BBMP from the next financial year may also commence the process of delivering draft e-khata to homes. While the BBMP had no such plans as the document can be easily downloaded by the owners at homes, the civic body was directed by Mr. Shivakumr to devise such a strategy. The BBMP is planning to task 600 revenue officials to implement this after April and no private agencies will be hired for the same.