BBMP’s Digital Odyssey: Will It Simplify or Stumble?

BBMP’s digital property record plan raises eyebrows among Bengaluru residents, with memories of past bureaucratic hurdles casting shadows of doubt.

It was 11 am on November 27 and Srinivasa’s (named withheld on request) phone beeped. It was a message from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

It read, “BBMP is creating digital property record for which BBMP staff will visit you in a few days. Please keep copy of your property tax receipt and Bescom bill ready to hand over to them. This is very necessary to correctly digitise your property.”

Instantly, the senior citizen’s thoughts drifted to the challenging experience he faced when selling his nonagenarian father’s property in East Bangalore.
A decade ago, during BBMP’s transition from Panchayat khata to their ledger, Srinivasa’s father’s name was misspelled, leading to the issuance of a B khata despite correct documentation.

This initiated a mentally and physically exhausting ordeal for Srinivasa, as he navigated the complexities of correcting the khata.
To add to his woes, he was being pressurised by government officials to cough up a bomb to get their khata corrected.

“As a Kannadiga, who has lived in Delhi and abroad, I have never seen corruption reach the extent it has in my home state. While correcting my father’s khata took considerable effort and time, I remained steadfast in resisting the demands of corrupt officials. Sadly, my experiences have eroded my trust in the system here. It leaves me questioning whether digitisation serves the public’s benefit or merely becomes a tool to exploit citizens, augmenting personal revenues for politicians and officials,” he says.
Srinivas is not the only one expressing skepticism about the BBMP’s proposed digitisation of property documents. There are others who believe that in an era of fake news and online frauds, it is challenging to trust information at face value.

“I got a message about BBMP officials checking my property tax and electricity bill. In a world of fake news, how can I trust it’s real? I checked BBMP’s website for info on digitisation but found nothing. It’s unclear. They need to update their site and inform the public. This is causing distress,” says Nithya Rangarajan, an HR Consultant.

The digitisation initiative forms a component of the Nanna Swatthu programme, an adapted version of BBMP’s “e-Aasthi” platform, which was announced by DK Shivakumar, Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister, at the “Brand Bengaluru” conclave approximately a month ago. According to sources in the real estate industry, the initiative aims to identify properties outside the tax net, categorise and regularise building violations and to reduce forgery of property documents. On one side, cases like Srinivasa’s highlight concerns, while on the other, non-compliance with tax laws is evident as people flout guidelines during self-assessment.

Deceptive practices include failing to declare additional floors or constructed areas, leading to a significant disparity between registered and actual taxable areas. Some even merge lands, paying higher taxes for one plot instead of the accurate constructed area of two. This issue extends beyond real estate builders to independent house owners, including politicians and corporators, with violations surpassing those attributed to builders. Helming the task, Tushar Giri Nath, Chief Commissioner of BBMP, stated unequivocally that the purpose of digitisation is to preserve the data and seamlessly link it with Kaveri, its tax system and other such systems making it robust. Vouching for the digitisation of property as foolproof Giri Nath said, “We will deal with violations and recover the remaining balance in cases of discrepancies.

Digitisation of property will also enable the property to be geo tagged.” The initiative is expected to be rolled out in a phased manner.

The essence of the matter actually lies in the fact that by digitising property documents, the BBMP aims to achieve a revenue target of Rs 4,790 crore for the current fiscal. Generating Rs 3,300 crore in the previous fiscal year (2022-23), BBMP officials believe this initiative will not only boost revenue but also establish a comprehensive database of all properties in Bengaluru.

Echoing the sentiments of the chief commissioner Giri Nath, V Ravichandar, Chairman, Feedback Consulting, advocates digitisation of property for the purpose of geotagging. He states, “In this age of information, it’s required to digitise property as it provides accurate information, which helps in geotagging or making sure the property tax is paid.” In addition, Ravichandar reflected on the introduction of the self-assessment scheme (SAS) launched way back in the year 2000 and said, “Under the proposed SAS, 5% of property in the city was supposed to be selected randomly for inspection, which didn’t happen. Later, improvising on the implementation of the scheme, it was proposed to inspect 10% property in the city. Had this been implemented, by now all the properties would have been inspected, and obviously the initiative failed. Now the government is proceeding with the inspection of property at one go, which is a good sign and is the need of the hour.” Property tax is believed to be the largest potential source of revenue for municipal corporations, the process, which has just begun, has ruffled few feathers among the public due to lack of clarity in the implementation of the initiative. Assuaging the inhibitions, Spe[1]cial Commissioner for Revenue, BBMP, Munish Moudgil sanguinely says, “Digitisation is a beneficial change for the people. It is for transparency and making records tamper-proof. In addition, mutations and other property services will be automatic and available to people online.”

“We will deal with violations and recover the remaining balance in cases of discrepancies. Digitisation of property will also enable the property to be geotagged.”

CN Ashwath Narayan, former Deputy Chief Minister, welcomed the move of property digitisation and remarked, “Digitisation of property should be people-centric and shouldn’t limit to tax collection alone. BBMP officials must ensure property documentation is done systematically and not lead to any harassment by the revenue officers. The transfer of property should be done with the least interference of people in authority.” Despite assurances, there remains significant ambiguity among the public regarding the rollout of the property digitization campaign. People are eagerly anticipating clearer communication from the government and the BBMP, extending beyond mere text messages notifying property inspections.