The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) has completed 55 percent of the property tax collection for the year 2018-19 through new spatial mapping.
Bengaluru, Nov.21, 2018.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 2016 to start data analysis of pictures to be taken by ISRO satellites starting in January 2019.
The BBMP joined hands with ISRO and have started using Unnamed Ariel Systems (UAE) to track properties under them.
Mr Venkatesh, an assistant revenue officer at the BBMP said that, “We have identified the owners of illegal properties through spatial mapping as well. We have found about 2,000 owners of illegal properties and have fined them.”
According to the BBMP, more than half of the property tax collection of this year has been completed through spatial mapping. Out of the 16 lakh properties under BBMP, they have collected Rs 2,103 crore so far. Their target for this financial year (2018-19) is Rs 3,800 crore.
The personal assistant of taxation and finance department at BBMP, Vasu, said that, “The spatial mapping has helped us a lot. We can identify the property tax payers and the property tax owners. We can also identify the ones who haven’t paid their taxes on time”.
The property owners in Kumbalgodu paid their tax on time. One of the property owners Ganesh, said that, “I can view my property on the Geo-spatial-enabled property tax information system by the BBMP. After I registered into the system, I got a seven digit number to log into the system and view my payment status.”
Talking about the taxation policy of the BBMP, Abhishek K, an accounting and taxation professor, who has been in this field for 35 years, said that, “This is a huge step taken by the BBMP to complete the given target. I have never seen them complete a target before. Through new technologies, it is making the BBMP’s job easier to collect property taxes.”
ISRO also recently started a new Geo-portal, “Bhuvan” that will help the BBMP through a mobile application to notice any updates in the landscape data, which is based on finance, revenue and information technology departments of the BBMP.
The officials from the BBMP would visit physically the problem areas to verify and solve the issue, if necessary.
Manoj Kumar Meena, Special Commissioner of Projects at the, BBMP said,” ISRO would be sending pictures and the data of geographical area forwards through which we can see and know if there are any encroachments, and violation of laws. We would also be able to identify an actual number of properties in the city. It can be used for civic work like solid waste management and traffic “.
Sarfaraz Khan, Special Commissioner of solid waste management at the BBMP said,” This would deal with the problems like encroachments, property owners violating building laws, illegal dumping of waste, the condition of roads. This would be first-time such technology will help any municipal corporation in the country “.
ISRO is going to provide spatial remote sensed information for 198 wards, every six months. The Geographical Information System (GIS) is going to capture and analyse geographical data. The BBMP will now receive analysis to match the properties with BBMP maps to avoid errors if any.
The officials of BBMP are instructed to collect the data by December, so that the analysis of it can begin in January 2019.
Dr. A.S. Rayamane, Professor of Geography, at the Union of Geographic Information Technologists, said “Many changes can happen with the help of ISRO in departments like encroachments and law violations, town planning, and solid waste management. This technology is different from mapping the BBMP already uses “.
– Article by Gayatri Sa and Manasi Pawar
