more-in With the goal of collecting more revenue, the civic body appears to be determined to pull up citizens who violate building bye-laws, evade property tax, put up illegal hoardings, cut roads illegally, and commit other violations. The 2017-18 city budget is packed with a range of measures to bring violators to book. Even as the Akrama Sakrama scheme, which will regularise building violations is pending before the Supreme Court, the civic body has come up with a mechanism to prevent violations in future. The lack of such a mechanism was one of the main criticism of the Akrama-Sakrama Scheme. However, as experts point out, it’s yet to be seen whether the BBMP will be able to implement them effectively. If you stray from sanctioned plan, no ground floor If the BBMP has its way and gets approval from the State, citizens and realtors erecting buildings or houses with ground-plus-four and more floors will have to register the ground floor with the civic body at a nominal cost of ?100 when work on the project commences. The registered ground floor will be released to the owner when the BBMP issues an occupancy certificate (OC) if the building adheres to the sanctioned plan. Ownership of the ground floor will remain with the BBMP if the sanctioned plan is violated. This scheme has been successfully implemented in Hyderabad, Telangana. R. Ramesh, a property consultant and developer, said that while the scheme is a welcome move to check violations, it gives more discretionary powers to local engineers issuing the OC, potentially creating avenues for harassment of developers and corruption. High target for property tax collection The civic body has set a high target of ?2,600 crore from property tax for 2017-18, a massive ?921 crore more than what was collected this fiscal. “Meeting this target will depend on the GIS Enabled Property Tax Information System (GEPTIS) that has mapped a total of 19 lakh properties in the city and is now being mounted on the Bhuvan platform of ISRO,” said V. Ravichandran, member, BBMP Restructuring Committee. The Self Assessment Scheme for property tax did come with a component of random checks of declarations made by property owners, but was often neglected. The civic body intends to push forward with verifications this year. It has announced a survey of malls, apartments, tech parks and industrial units. A pilot study has already revealed large scale under-reporting. High penalty Following several complaints of newly laid roads being dug up, the BBMP has announced a hefty penalty of ?25 lakh for firms and ?10 lakh for residents for this violation. Sridhar Pabbisetty, CEO, Namma Bengaluru Foundation, says, “There are some steps towards transparency and regulations in the budget, like social audits. Its a good start but more importantly, the BBMP should follow up.” Citizen- friendly initiatives

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