Property tax payment bangalore
george
(Querist) 10 August 2012
This query is : Resolved
Hello Sir, Thanks fo your valuable time.
My father had purchased a plot in Bangalore city in year 1993. However he was never aware that property tax needs to be paid on plot of land also. Recently I realised it and spoke to an official of Bangalore Muncipality(BBMP) on telephone and sent copies of the plot to him, who informed me that now I would need to pay fine/ penalty over delay of payment of propety tax from 1993 to 2012 @ 2% per month. My Question--Do we have to pay penalty on non-payment of tax for 19 yrs ( I approached the officials of BBMP first, and no notice/demand for payment ever issued on the plot till date by BBMP ). Is there any other way to avoid the penalty as it is a very huge amount. Also from which year did govt. implement penalty on non-payment of property tax Thanks George
ajay sethi
(Expert) 10 August 2012
Is there not any period of limitation for property tax?
This question has been answered by a recent judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (dated 20.11.2009 in RSA No.3305 of 2005 (O&M)). The court order can be found here. The salient points of this judgment are:
1. If the Municipal Corporations Act contains the limitation period for property tax explicitly, it applies.
2. If the Municipal Corporations Act does not contain the limitation period for property tax explicitly, Item No. 113 of the Schedule of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies and the limitation period is 3 years.
3. If the Corporation issues a notice on tax arrears within the limitation period (given in 1. and 2. above) and the respondent fails to pay, the arrears of property tax will become a charge on the property. When the arrears become a charge on the property, the limitation gets enlarged by Item No. 62 of the Schedule of the Limitation Act, 1963 to 12 years.
Sec. 474 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 sets the limitation period for collection of taxes as 6 years.
