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The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) said it briefly closed a popular shopping center in Malleswaram for a few hours on Thursday because its owners had not paid property taxes since 2018-19.
The total unpaid amount of property tax owed by Mantri Square Mall, owned by Abhishek Developers, is Rs 39.49 crore, which includes property tax arrears of Rs 27.22 crore and interest of Rs 12, 26 crore, according to the BBMP. The mall was sealed off for a few hours on September 30 and was allowed to open after its administration handed over demand drafts of Rs 5 crore and a requisition letter stating that dues would be paid by October 31. . Drafts on demand will be deposited in a special account owned by BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta.
The civic agency said Mantri Mall previously handed over a check for Rs 10.43 crore for the year 2018-19 which rebounded, as a result of which it filed a lawsuit in this regard. Incidentally, shopping malls have been closed in Bengaluru for most of the past 18 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A BBMP official in the West Zone said that for the past three years, the owner of the mall has paid the pending property tax in small installments in order to stay operational. “Also in February, we closed the mall for seven hours due to non-payment of property tax. We did this because the mall did not respond to the show cause notice we issued. BBMP zone commissioners must collect property tax from defaulters, â€said the official.
At a recent meeting on property tax collection, Gupta said the goal for the current fiscal year is to collect Rs 4,000 crore, of which Rs 2,141.51 (50%) has been collected. .
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