Mysuru civic body’s B-khata drive to bring unauthorised properties under tax net, ET RealEstate
MYSURU: Since launching a B-khata issuance drive in mid-March, the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) issued 2,349 B-khatas to unauthorised property owners. The civic body aims to bring all 27,616 such properties under the tax net over the next 16 months. This effort is expected to boost property tax revenue.
As state govt has already given clear-cut directions to all urban municipal bodies and owners of unauthorised properties in urban areas outside Bengaluru to secure B-khata, a temporary registration for properties that are not yet fully authorised, MCC has intensified the drive within its limits in the city. The drive, launched by district minister HC Mahadevappa in the first week of March, received an overwhelming response from property owners in the city.
Earlier, state govt set a three-month deadline for the regularisation of unauthorised properties like B-khatas by the second week of May. As the progress was slow, state govt extended this deadline by another 16 months. MCC has now received a good response from all its nine zones.
MCC identified 27,616 B-khata properties during the survey, in addition to 182,167 A-khatas. It issued 2,349 B-khatas after the launch of the drive in the first week of March. MCC also issued 38,584 A-khatas in authorised layouts out of a total of 182,167 properties by the end of April.
As complaints about the role of middlemen and brokers poured in during the khata registration drive, MCC installed CCTV cameras in all its nine zonal offices and stepped up its vigilance to eliminate the role of brokers and middlemen in the process. MCC deputy commissioner (revenue) GS Somashekhar said that the department also replaced officers to facilitate easy registration of A-khatas and B-khatas in all its nine zonal limits. The staff are also visiting door-to-door to verify documents before issuing khatas, he said.
MCC commissioner Syed Tanveer Asif said that he is regularly verifying the progress of the issuance of A-khatas and B-khatas achieved by its staff on all working days in all nine zonal offices. He is also verifying the causes of pending cases of people registered online for khata registration. MCC has installed enough computers, xerox machines, and printers to facilitate easy registration of khatas in all its zonal offices, he said.
Former mayor M Shivakumar wants govt to relax the rules of demanding property registration copies in revenue layouts in B-khata issuance drive. MCC officials must facilitate the B-khata drive by simplifying the registration process by collecting at least one document, such as proof of payment over the past five years, he said. He said Mysuru city has over 40,000 properties in revenue layouts. Bringing them under the tax net helps both the city civic body and govt in generating revenue, as well as allowing residents of these properties to receive certified temporary property documents from govt.
